Trade ministers from the Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States (OECS) began a two-day meeting here against the backdrop of a changing global trade environment and the need for the sub-region to respond appropriately to those changes.
Grenada’s Minister for Foreign Affairs, Trade and Export Development, Joseph Andall, told the sixth Council of Trade Ministers meeting that the OECS would need to strategise for dealing with changes being called for within the World Trade Organization (WTO), the United States new trading arrangements as well as the situation within the wider Caribbean Community (CARICOM).
Andall said with a functioning economic union and a fully operational customs union as well as the free circulation of goods, the OECS would be better positioned “to influence the speed and trajectory of the CARICOM Single Market and Economy (CSME)” that allows for the free movement of goods, skills, labour and services across the 15-member grouping.
“Further, as the less developed countries within CARICOM, it is important for the OECS to secure the anticipated benefits of the CSME, including through the full operationalisation of Chapter 7 of the Revised Treaty pf Chaguaramas, ensuring that we coordinate our engagement within the CARICOM organs will be critical to this”.
Andall said that the Council agreed to convene ordinary meetings in advance of the CARICOM Council on Trade and Economic Development (COTED) to allow the sub-region to coordinate its engagement ahead of the June 10th COTED meeting.
“I am hoping we can contribute to CARICOM’s agenda by moving towards a unified voice on some key issues on the COTED agenda,” Andall said, noting that one such issue is the enforcement of competition policy in the OECS”.
He said he has noted that regulatory and competition authorities “was one of the areas where OECS member states agreed to coordinate, harmonise and to do joint actions and policies.
“This is also an obligation under the Revised Treaty of Chaguaramas. The OECS remains challenged in finding acceptable regional solutions as called for by the revised Treaty of Basseterre (which governs the OECS Economic Union established in 2010).”
Andall said that the meeting will consider and confront issues in the wider economic and trade relations, noting that at the multilateral level at the WTO member states in Geneva are planning the 14th session of the WTO ministerial conference, schedule for 2025.5.14
He said the OECS, through its Geneva Mission, continues to advance its trade and development interests and that a “well functioning rules based multilateral trading system is important for the small countries of the OECS.
“The rules, norms and decision making procedure of the WTO provide the necessary guard rails to help us secure our trade and development interests as we do not have the political and economic capacity to independently influence trade flows and trade rules.
“The WTO is facing threats to its continued relevance. Member states have been engaged in discussions to reform the system and the OECS must ensure it is contributing to the shaping of the future of the WTO,” the Grenada government minister told his colleagues.
He said the OECS countries have also witnessed recent “seismic shifts” in the policy approach to the management of trade by major trading countries, which he warned is the latest threat to the WTO and the multilateral trading system.
“It also threatens our very limited capacity to compete and trade,” he said, referring to the “new America first trade policy.
“We are all aware of the imposition of reciprocal tariffs on OECS exports to the US markets. Since the 1980’s , OECS-US trade has been governed largely by the unilateral and non-reciprocal duty free access that most OECS goods could enjoy under the Caribbean Basin Initiative (CBI).
But Andall said the new base reciprocal tariff of 10 per cent “is a marked departure from the CBI arrangement.
“This is of significant concern for OECS prospects and desire to increase exports to the United States,” Andall said adding that he was looking forward to the discussions on this matter during the meeting here “as we consider the implications for the OECS.
‘We will need to agree on how to respond and also contribute to the wider CARICOM approach,” he added.
The meeting here is expected to focus on strengthening regional trade policies, advancing economic integration, and addressing pressing trade challenges, reviewing and strengthening the OECS Trade Policy Coordinating Framework, including establishing an OECS Trade Policy Committee with representatives from government, private sector, and civil society.
The Council will discuss the Eastern Caribbean Economic Union (ECEU), focusing on two key components, the operationalization of an OECS Customs Union and the free trade in services regime.
Source-CMC
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