IN ORDER TO STAY RELEVANT on the global scene, small island states need to keep abreast with their competitors and changes in international trade policies.
Indianna Minto-Coy, trade policy research fellow at the Shridath Ramphal centre of International Trade Law, Policy and Services, said the region was constantly playing catch-up and that was not good when it comes to trade.
“We are constantly on that mission of trying to get up to speed and the reality is that while we are trying to get up to speed, things are changing. So it is for us to attempt to get in front of that process at some point so that we are not constantly being forced to catch up, but we can actually take more ownership of our future,” she warned.
Small business affected
Minto-Coy told BARBADOS BUSINESS AUTHORITY that the international environment was constantly changing and evolving in terms of the rules for trade and suggested that the region was not well equipped to change along with these markets. She argued that small businesses were the ones mostly affected.
“For example, the United States is now changing its food regulations which require a lot of exporters to then go look at issues of food safety, food regulations, the different systems and processes that they use in the Caribbean in order to access these markets.
Regulatory requirements
“Now, how competent are we in terms of resources to meet these legal and regulatory requirements that are now being introduced? This then places the onus on the different groups within the Caribbean that are responsible for trade to help small businesses get up to speed to meet these requirements,” she said.
The university researcher said the region as a whole was struggling with innovation and needed greater collaboration in order to tap into new areas and increase its visibility on the world stage. She also said food security should be an item on governments’ agendas in the region.
She explained, however, that “food security cannot only be in terms of the volume or access to food, but the quality of what we are able to access”. (MM)