Trade negotiatiors from CARICOM member states met in Barbados last week for a seminar designed to strengthen their understanding of trade in services issues related to opportunities for small and medium-sized enterprises and e-commerce.
The Advanced Regional Workshop On The General Agreement On Trade In Services (GATS) And Trade In Services For The Caribbean was held at the Hilton Barbados, organized by the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) through its Integration and Trade Sector (INT) and its Institute for the Integration of Latin America and the Caribbean (INTAL), and the World Trade Organization (WTO) and the CARICOM Secretariat.
It was one of a series of seminars under the umbrella of the IDB-WTO training programme for Government officials which aims to deepen cooperation to provide technical assistance on trade negotiations and capacity-building to the region.
Speaking last Monday during the opening session of the seminar, Joel Bransky, IDB’s representative in Barbados, said that by the end of the programme, participants were expected to have enhanced their understanding of GATS and its implications for small and medium-sized enterprises and IT-enabled services policy objectives in their respective countries.
“They will be better equipped to assess the impact of GATS obligations, commitments and negotiations on these policy priorities and trade interests,” he said.
Bransky noted that the IDB has defined regional integration and global insertion as one of its priorities and emphasized that the creation of infrastructure for such purposes is an essential tool towards improving global competitiveness in Latin America and the Caribbean. (NB/PR)
