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  • Caribbean Trade and Development News Digest – February 14 – 21, 2021

    Caribbean Trade and Development News Digest – February 14 – 21, 2021

    Welcome to the Caribbean Trade and Development News Digest for the week of February 14-21, 2021! We are pleased to bring you the major trade and development news headlines and analysis from across the Caribbean Region and the world from the past week.

    THIS WEEK’S HIGHLIGHTS

    It’s official! Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala is the new WTO Director General-elect and will assume office on March 1. A well-respected and world-renowned development economist, Dr. Okonjo-Iweala will not only become the seventh person to head the WTO, but makes history as the first female and first person from Africa in the role. Noteworthy as well is that Isabelle Durant is now acting Secretary General of UNCTAD. This means that all three of the major organisations focused on global trade – the WTO, UNCTAD and ITC – are now headed by women! To read the statement by Dr. Okonjo-Iweala to a special session of the WTO’s General Council, click here.

    The evaluation report on the CARIFORUM-EU Economic Partnership Agreement for the period 2008-2018 has been made public and can now be accessed here.

    This week the EU also released a communication outlining the elements that will comprise its new “open, sustainable and assertive trade strategy” in the mid-term. Read more about it here.

    The US has officially rejoined the Paris Climate Agreement, 107 days after the Trump Administration pulled the country out of the pact. Read my article on this here.

    Coming up this week will be the 32nd Inter-Sessional Meeting of CARICOM Heads of Government.

    REGIONAL NEWS

    Trade case filed by Belize against Federation withdrawn from Caribbean Court of Justice

    St Kitts & Nevis Observer: Minister of International Trade et al, the Honourable Wendy Phipps, said diplomacy and negotiations by the Attorney General’s Chambers and the Office of the Solicitor General, St. Kitts and Nevis has been successful in having the Government of Belize, through its Ministry of International Trade, withdraw the recent case from the Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ). Read more

    SKNLP: Brown sugar price to rise by 40% in St Kitts and Nevis

    WIC News: The government led by Harris announced in parliament on Thursday 18 February 2021 that the government has now applied a 40% tax on imported brown sugar, which will significantly increase costs for people, alleged St Kitts and Nevis Labour Party (SKNLP) in its statement. Read more

    Cabinet approves $50m export booster

    TT Guardian: Cabinet has approved a TT$50 million export booster initiative for the manufacturing sector, the objective of which is to promote exports of manufactured goods. Read more

    No improvements until Customs, industry on same page

    TT Newsday: If the ease of doing business in this country is to improve, facilities involved in the trade, such as Customs, must be on the same page as the industries driving the economy.. This was one of the major takeaways from Amcham’s latest webinar titled Ease of Doing Business – Trade Modernisation on Monday. Read more

    Gopee-Scoon: Steel, feed prices will go down, hopefully

    TT Newsday: Trade minister Paula Gopee-Scoon is hopeful that, as the worldwide demand for items such as steel and key ingredients used to make feed normalises, so will their prices. Read more

    Trade Ministry allocates $20m for SME certification

    TT Newsday: The Trade Ministry, in conjuction with the TT Manufacturers’ Association and ExporTT, on Tuesday launched the National Export Booster Initiative, a suite of 16 programmes to enhance export promotion, capacity building and institutional strengthening within the manufacturing sector. Read more

    Trade Licence Unit modernising operations

    LoopTT: Moving from paper to digital, the Trade Licence Unit (TLU) of the Ministry of Trade and Industry has achieved a significant milestone in its modernisation efforts to further improve T&T’s trade and business environment. Read more

    The Power of Partnership! Local Cocoa and Chocolate Cluster Program Takes Steps to Revolutionize the Industry

    ExportTT: Ubergreen Organics Ltd. is the lead organisation of a newly formed Organic Fine Cocoa and Chocolate Cluster. One of its main goals is to increase excellence and quality within the industry through partnership. Read more

    CET for Panadol not approved

    TT Newsday: Minister of Trade and Industry Paula Gopee-Scoon has said suspension of the Common External Tariff was sought on hundreds of items, but Panadol was not approved. Read more

    Global testing standards goal set for next year

    Barbados Today: Export-oriented businesses in Barbados, Dominica and St Kitts and Nevis will be offered globally standardised testing at domestic laboratories as early as next year, says Daniel Best, Director of Project Department at the Caribbean Development Bank (CDB). Read more

    Developing Barbados’ yachting sector

    BGIS: The development of Barbados’ yachting sector could see the creation of new jobs and possibilities. Minister of Maritime Affairs and the Blue Economy, Kirk Humphrey, made this revelation as he disclosed that Government was preparing to take a paper to Cabinet on yachting to improve the sector. Read more

    CARICOM-Canada foreign ministers discuss post COVID-19 economic recovery

    St Kitts & Nevis Observer: Caribbean Community (CARICOM) Foreign Ministers met virtually on February 19 with their Canadian counterpart, the Hon. Marc Garneau, in the first virtual CARICOM-Canada Meeting of Foreign Ministers. St. Kitts and Nevis was represented by Foreign Minister, the Honourable Mark Brantley. Read more

    CARICOM is preparing a joint policy on tourism

    Prensa Latina: The countries of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) are currently working on outlining a joint tourism policy in order to revive this key sector for the region’s economies. Read more

    CARICOM insists on equitable distribution of vaccines

    Cayman Compass: As regional neighbours begin the distribution of COVID-19 vaccines, 14 independent CARICOM states have insisted, in a resolution adopted Wednesday, on the equitable distribution of doses. Read more

    CARICOM asks WHO to host meeting on COVID vaccine distribution

    Nation News: The 15-member Caribbean Community (CARICOM) Thursday reiterated its call for the World Health Organisation (WHO) to host an international summit on distribution of the coronavirus (COVID-19) vaccine. Read more

    Prime Minister Minnis leads CARICOM meeting on Joint Tourism Policy

    CARICOM: Prime Minister the Most Hon. Dr. Hubert Minnis chaired the First Meeting of the Prime Ministerial Sub-Committee on Tourism to discuss the development of a Joint Tourism Policy for CARICOM. Read more

    Connecting & Collaborating: Establishing New Business Relationships

    Now Grenada: Address by Prime Minister of Grenada Dr The Rt Hon. Keith Mitchell at the Virtual Caribbean Business Forum – Connecting & Collaborating: Establishing New Business Relationships, 17 February 2021. Read more

    OECS to facilitate high-level WTO fisheries workshop

    MENAFN: With the support of the Pew Charitable Trusts (Pew) and the International Institute for Sustainable Development (IISD), the Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States (OECS) Commission will be convening a high-level workshop on the ongoing World Trade Organization (WTO) fisheries subsidies negotiations on February 24-25, 2021. Read more

    Regional forum on supply chain management

    Barbados Today: Global trade is in flux, and Caribbean companies are facing huge risks. The big question is: How will they plan for future disruptions, and adapt to more agile systems? To answer this, The University of the West Indies (The UWI) Five Islands Campus, in Antigua and Barbuda, will be hosting “Supply Chain Management and Logistics in a Post-COVID-19 Caribbean” on Monday, February 22, 2021, from 6:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. (Eastern Caribbean time). Read more

    INTERNATIONAL NEWS

    Building back better requires more women in international trade

    Globe and Mail History is being made as Nigeria’s Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala becomes the first woman and first African to ever lead the 26-year-old World Trade Organization (WTO). As the world grapples with how to “build back better,” a female director-general steering the global trading ship sends a powerful message: The world needs better trade outcomes and trade needs women on board. Read more

    Brexit: Are freight exports to the EU back to normal?

    BBC: The government says the volume of freight exports from Great Britain to the European Union has returned to normal, in spite of the new post-Brexit barriers to trade with the EU, and restrictions related to the pandemic. Read more

    Ports feel the chill as trade re-routes around Brexit Britain

    Guardian: In Holyhead, traffic has fallen 50% as hauliers stymied by Brexit find their way from Ireland to France without entering the UK. Read more

    The EU says it’s going to get tough on trade — and that could have ramifications for U.S., China

    CNBC: The European Union will take a new approach to international trade, recognizing that it’s time to stand up for itself after challenging times with countries like the U.S. Read more

    How European businesses are adapting to Brexit

    BBC: It’s been almost two months since the UK’s post-Brexit free trade deal with the EU came into effect. Under the new rules, European companies must directly pay UK sales tax, or VAT, on sales under £135 (€155; $190), so they now have to register and file quarterly declarations with the UK authorities. Other changes include customs declarations and additional paperwork. So how have they adapted so far and what impact have the changes had? Read more

    EU puts WTO at centre of greener trade reform push

    Reuters: The European Union put reform of the World Trade Organization at the heart of its trade strategy for the next decade on Thursday, saying global rules on commerce must be greener, take more account of state subsidies and be enforced. Read more

    EU trade chief warns Biden over ‘Buy American’ push

    Politico.EU: Valdis Dombrovskis says EU will track whether US is straying outside WTO commitments. Read more

    Here’s why China’s trade deal with Mauritius matters

    World Economic Forum: 2021 marks the start of two important trade policy developments in Africa. Firstly, the African Continental Free Trade Agreement (AfCFTA) has been signed by 54 of 55 African Union member states and ratified by 31 so far. Read more

    India, Mauritius trade agreement receives green light from Cabinet

    New Indian Express: In such agreements, the two trading partners cut or eliminate duties on a host of products besides liberalising norms to promote services trade. Read more

    RCEP free trade deal will have no major impact on US soybean, corn exports to China: USDA

    Hellenic Shipping News: The Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership, the world’s largest free trade pact that China joined in late 2020 and which will likely take effect from mid-2021, will not have any major impact on US soybean and corn exports to China in the near future, the US Department of Agriculture said Feb. 17. Read more

    Canada, Indonesia Trade Talks Begin for Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement

    ASEAN Briefing: On January 11, 2021, Canada’s Minister of Small Business, Export Promotion, and International Trade, Mary Ng, announced that the country has launched public consultations on a Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (CEPA) with Indonesia. Read more

    Wamkele Mene: ‘AfCFTA is going to be difficult but we’ve got to do it’

    The Africa Report: The AfCFTA secretary general talks to The Africa Report about the continental trade bloc’s January launch, forging value chains and diplomatic challenges ahead. Read more

    Private sector firms join push for AfCFTA agenda

    The East African: Private sector lobbies in Africa’s six regional trading blocs have formed the African Business Council, a continental umbrella body to spearhead the business agenda for the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA). Read more

    Six Reasons why Africa’s new free trade area is a global game changer

    Namibia Economist: Launched on 1 January, the AfCFTA is an exciting game changer. Currently, Africa accounts for just 2% of global trade. And only 17% of African exports are intra-continental, compared with 59% for Asia and 68% for Europe. Read more

    Nigeria AfCFTA committee begins sensitisation on new trade agreement

    Business a.m.: The National Action Committee on the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) has flagged off a nationwide awareness and sensitisation tour targeted at placing Nigeria in a favourable position in the AfCFTA agreement. Read more

    How the AfCFTA impacts China-Africa trade relations

    CNBC Africa; The African Continental Free Trade Area agreement which launched operations on the 1st of January this year aims to accelerate intra-African trade and boost Africa’s trading position in the global market. Read more

    Ukraine, Japan start to negotiate free trade agreement

    Kyiv Post: Ukraine has started negotiating a free trade agreement with Japan with the aim of abolishing most import duties to strengthen their economic ties. Read more

    STRAIGHT FROM THE WTO

    NEW ON THE CTLD BLOG

    The Caribbean Trade & Development Digest is a weekly trade news digest produced and published by the Caribbean Trade Law & Development Blog. Liked this issue? To read past issues, please visit here. To receive these mailings directly to your inbox, please subscribe to our Blog below:

  • US Rejoining Paris Agreement: Important Step Forward but Giant Leaps Still Needed

    US Rejoining Paris Agreement: Important Step Forward but Giant Leaps Still Needed

    Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay

    “And just like we need a unified national response to COVID-19, we desperately need a unified national response to the climate crisis because there is a climate crisis.” – Remarks by President Joe Biden Before Signing Executive Actions on Tackling Climate Change, Creating Jobs, and Restoring Scientific Integrity

    Alicia Nicholls

    On February 19, 2021, the international community warmly hailed the United States’ (US) formal rejoining of the Paris Climate Agreement, some 107 days after its withdrawal under the previous administration. The Paris Agreement was concluded and adopted on December 12, 2015 by 196 Parties at the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) Twenty-first Conference of the Parties (COP 21) in Paris, France. It was the product of many years of efforts, but entered into force in record time on November 4, 2016.

    Under the Agreement, parties commit to taking actions to hold the global average temperature increase to “well below 2 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels”, while pursuing efforts to limit it to 1.5 degrees Celsius. To meet the Paris Agreement’s goals, countries are to submit nationally determined contributions (NDCs), outlining their post-2020 climate actions to reduce their national emissions and to adapt to climate change. NDCs are to become progressively more ambitious every five years. However, for developing countries, while financing is needed to achieve these efforts, the gap between mitigation and adaptation needs and available funding remains wide.

    This article discusses the significance of the US’ rejoining the Paris Climate Agreement. It argues that after taking several steps backward under the previous administration, the US’ recommitment to climate action is a welcomed step forward for increasing ambition in global mitigation efforts. It further posits, however, that nations must make giant leaps in their climate response ambitions to avert the worst case warming scenario. All developed nations should ramp up financing for developing countries’ climate action efforts, especially given the COVID-19 shock wrought on the economies of many of the world’s poorest and most vulnerable countries, including Small Island Developing States (SIDS).

    The steps backwards

    As a global challenge, climate change requires international cooperation for corrective action to be meaningful. Under the Barack Obama administration, the US was among the parties which negotiated and signed the Paris Agreement under the UNFCCC framework. Then Secretary of State, John Kerry, now President Biden’s Special Presidential Envoy on Climate Change, famously signed the Agreement on the US’ behalf with his granddaughter on his knee. Under the Obama Administration, the US committed under the Paris Agreement to reducing its emissions to 26-28% below 2005 levels by 2025.

    Even before assuming office officially, President Donald Trump quickly announced plans to pull the US out of the Paris Agreement, which he claimed was designed to kill American jobs. The Agreement’s withdrawal clause effectively bars any Party from withdrawing from the Agreement before a three year period from the Agreement’s entry into force for that party had elapsed, and such withdrawal would only take effect one year after.

    In the interim, President Trump rolled back or weakened over 100 Obama-era climate and environmental policies and regulations, covering anything from regulating vehicle to power plant emissions to endangered species. He also actively promoted the greater use of coal and other fossil fuels, and in his final days in office, he approved oil drilling in Alaska’s Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.

    On the five year anniversary of the Agreement’s signing, President Trump ‘honoured’ his campaign pledge and made the US the only country to date to pull out of the pact on November 4, 2020, just two days before the US presidential election. Although US action on climate change at the federal level ceased under the Trump administration, some States whose mayors, Governors and CEOs signed on to the “We’re still in movement” thankfully continued to implement clean energy and climate-friendly reforms.

    The steps forwards

    The world breathed a collective sigh of relief upon news of President Joe Biden’s election win which, among other things, brought the assurance that the US would once again follow the science that anthropogenic (man-made) climate change was real and urgent global action was needed to avert the looming climate crisis.

    On his first day of office, President Biden signed a letter of acceptance of the Paris Agreement. On January 27, 2021, the White House issued a comprehensive executive order drawing attention to the urgency of the climate crisis and making some key decisions, such as the establishment of a National Climate Task Force and a commitment to make climate change both a national and US foreign policy priority. Moreover, by twinning climate action with his economic recovery plan, Biden’s proposed $2 trillion dollar stimulus aims not only to ramp up US climate action to protect the planet, but to create jobs and promote US economic recovery in an environmentally sustainable manner.

    The giant leaps needed

    President Biden has called for bold climate action and given the four year lapse in federal action, he may have to propose targets which are more ambitious than the Obama-era targets. But he will need congressional support and action if his climate policies are to have any durability as executive actions can only go so far and can be easily overturned by a subsequent president.

    Other major polluting nations will also have to step up to the plate. According to the World Resources Institute (WRI) reporting, ten nations account for over 68% of global GHG emissions. China ranks as the world’s largest polluter emiting 26% of global GHGs, followed by the US at 13%, the EU at 7.8% and India at 6.7%. In a TedTalk held on the same day as the US’ rejoining of the Paris Agreement took effect, Special Envoy Kerry called the upcoming COP26 talks to be held in Scotland, UK later this year the “last, great hope”. He also accused other major polluters of not doing enough to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions, while noting that a global climate summit the administration will host on April 22 (Earth Day) will, inter alia, seek to increase ambition in advance of COP26.

    Although the COP26 was postponed from last year due to COVID-19, an ambition summit was held in December 2020 in which several parties pledged net zero targets. China’s President Xi in December 2020 restated China’s commitment to reach peak carbon levels by 2030 but upgraded China’s ambition level by pledging a carbon intensity reduction of over 65% on a 2005 baseline by 2030. Of note was that several SIDS were among those 75 countries which pledged new commitments at the Climate Ambition Summit. Barbados, Fiji, the Maldives and Nauru were among the countries which made net zero-related pledges, according to IISD reporting. The EU has committed to cutting net GHG emissions EU-wide by at least 55% by 2030 with the goal of achieving carbon neutrality by 2050, while the UK pledged to reduce its GHG emissions at least 68% below 1990 levels by 2030.

    But are these efforts ambitious enough? The latest Emissions Gap Report (2020) called the current levels of ambition in countries’ NDCs “seriously inadequate” and would result in an at least 3 degrees Celsius rise in global temperatures above pre-industrial levels by 2100. It further cautioned that the 7% decline in CO2 emissions in 2020 caused by the COVID-19 pandemic will “make no significant difference to long-term climate change”. Moreover, a recent empirical study by Liu & Raftery (2021) found not only that the probability of major polluters meeting their NDCs was low, but that for temperature increases to be less than 2 degrees Celsius, the average rate of decline in emissions would need to increase from the 1% to 1.8% per year.

    According to the US’ National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), 2020 was second only to 2016 as the world’s hottest year on record. Large chunks of the glaciers in Greenland and Antarctica continue to melt, threatening SIDS and coastal communities with increased sea level rise. While SIDS are most at threat from climate change’s adverse impacts, continental States can also be affected. In his speech on the signing of the Executive Order, President Biden referenced the record wildfires in the western US and more powerful hurricanes affecting the US gulf and east coasts. Over the past week, the US state of Texas experienced unbearably cold temperatures due to a severe winter storm, which caused both power and water outages and several deaths.

    There is also the other important issue of climate financing to assist developing countries, which often face capacity constraints and limited domestic finance options, in their mitigation and adaptation efforts. At COP15 developed countries committed to mobilise jointly USD 100 billion each year in climate finance by 2020, but financing has fallen short of the target. The US had pledged $3 billion to the fund under the Obama administration, but paid only $1 billion ($500 million in two batches) before he left office. President Trump ordered a stop to the remaining $2 billion pledged to the fund. John Kerry has, however, pledged that US will “make good” on its pledge to the Green Climate Fund.

    At the Climate Ambition Summit, several countries, including the UK, made additional climate finance pledges, but these are only useful once they are acted upon. Climate finance is especially important now that many fiscally constrained SIDS, such as those in the Caribbean, have seen dramatic revenue drops because of COVID-19’s impact on their tourism industry. This leaves these governments with limited funds to finance their mitigation and adaptation efforts. This is coupled with the ineligibility of some Caribbean countries, like the Bahamas, Barbados and Trinidad & Tobago, for concessional financing due to their classification as upper middle income or high income economies solely on an income per capita basis.

    Redoubling efforts at making climate financing available for developing countries will also be critical for their achievement of the 17 UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by the 2030 target. Although SDG 13 speaks specifically to climate action, countries’ achievement of many of the other SDGs, for example, no poverty (SDG 1) and access to clean water (SDG 6), can be jeopardised by insufficient financing for climate action.

    Important step forward, giant leaps still needed

    In closing, the US’ rejoining of the Paris Agreement is an important step forward for the global climate fight, after taking several steps back under the previous administration. However, as ambition levels in countries’ current NDCs remain woefully inadequate for achieving the Paris Agreement’s objectives and avoiding the worst effects of climate change, all countries must make a giant leap forward to reduce their emissions. Developed countries should also redouble efforts to step up climate financing for developing countries, many of which are now even less financially able to fund their climate action due to the COVID-19 shock.

    Alicia Nicholls, B.Sc., M.Sc., LL.B. is an international trade and development specialist. Follow her on Twitter at @Licylaw and read her commentaries on www.caribbeantradelaw.com.

  • CARICOM and Canadian Foreign Ministers to Meet

    CARICOM and Canadian Foreign Ministers to Meet

    Image source: CARICOM Secretariat

    (CARICOM Secretariat, Turkeyen, Greater Georgetown, Guyana – Thursday, 18 February 2021)  –  The Foreign Ministers of CARICOM and Canada will meet virtually on Friday 19 February 2021, with the discussions  expected to centre on key issues of mutual interest including the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic, Economic Recovery, and Climate Resilience.

    Friday’s meeting will be co-chaired by Hon Marc Garneau, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Canada, and Hon Eamon Courtenay, Minister of Foreign Affairs, Foreign Trade and Immigration of Belize and incoming Chairman for the CARICOM Council for Foreign and Community Relations (COFCOR).

    With the COVID-19 pandemic continuing to take a heavy toll on citizens, economies and livelihoods, the Ministers are expected to examine areas for collaboration in response and recovery, as well as the issue of equitable access to vaccines.  The Ministers are expected to deliberate on rebuilding inclusive economies and promoting CANADA-CARICOM trade.  They are also expected to discuss action needed to fight Climate Change and work towards a cleaner, greener, bluer world in keeping with the Paris Agreement commitments and the Sustainable Development Goals.

    The preceding was a press release from the CARICOM Secretariat.

  • Caribbean Trade and Development News Digest – February 7 – 13, 2021 – The Love of Trade Edition!

    Caribbean Trade and Development News Digest – February 7 – 13, 2021 – The Love of Trade Edition!

    Welcome to the Caribbean Trade and Development News Digest – The Love of Trade Edition for the week of February 7-13, 2021! Happy Valentine’s Day to all readers who celebrate! If I were to pick a discipline as a Valentine, it would indeed be international trade! My love for this dynamic field just grows with each passing year!

    We are pleased to bring you the major trade and development news headlines and analysis from across the Caribbean Region and the world.

    THIS WEEK’S HIGHLIGHTS

    The five Micronesian member states of the Pacific Islands Forum have decided to leave the bloc as a result of the appointment of a Cook Islander as the new Secretary General, overlooking the Micronesian candidate. This development has led to questions on the bloc’s future. Read more here.

    Post-Brexit hiccups continue, with a British Chamber of Commerce survey finding that “half (49%) of exporters are facing difficulties in adapting to the changes in the trade of goods following the ratification of the UK-EU Trade and Cooperation Agreement (TCA) on 1 January 2021”. Read more here.

    The UK Government has published a new series of fact sheets showing the UK’s trade and investment relationship with various countries, including those in the Caribbean. Read more here.

    UNCTAD released its Global Trade Update on February 10, finding that East Asia manufacturing is leading the global trade recovery. However, it further found that many developing countries have been lagging behind in their trade recovery. Read the full report here.

    Coming up this week on February 15, there will be a Special General Council Meeting at the WTO where Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala will be confirmed as the organisation’s seventh Director-General.

    Turning regionally, kudos to the Government of India for its show of solidarity and friendship in donating doses of the Oxford/Astra Zeneca vaccines to the Governments of Barbados and Dominica and to the Caribbean, upon initial engagement by Barbados and Dominica. In turn, Barbados donated 3,000 doses of the received vaccines to the Government of Guyana, including the CARICOM Secretariat which is headquartered in Guyana.

    REGIONAL NEWS

    Project to help reduce barriers to trade

    Barbados Advocate: A regional project launched yesterday is intended to reduce barriers to trade and will aid fledgling manufacturers and other exporters. Read more

    Plans continue for UNCTAD XV

    Barbados Advocate: Plans are continuing apace for this island’s hosting of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) later this year. Speaking in Parliament as an additional $2,280,000 was assigned to the event’s organisation, Minister in the Ministry of Finance Ryan Straughn stated these funds were intended specifically for the procurement of security equipment. Read more

    Trade Policy Framework: Guyana

    UNCTAD: Trade policy encompasses the development and implementation of national laws, regulations, and standards to facilitate, promote or otherwise support trade relations between countries and the crossborder movement of tradeables. Effective trade policy is both a prerequisite for and a consequence of the negotiation and implementation of bilateral and multilateral trade agreements between and among countries. Read more

    Best for CARICOM to purchase Covid-19 vaccines as a group – experts advise

    Jamaica Gleaner: Two days ago, on the morning of Friday, February 12, Charles Savarin, the 77-year-old president of the sister Caribbean Community (CARICOM) state of Dominica, became the first person in his country to be vaccinated against COVID-19. Read more

    Caricom must order 20 million vaccines

    TT Newsday: Kiran Mathur Mohammed & Justin Ram argue that countries must join forces now to buy 20 million vaccine doses for the entire region, or the pandemic will continue to devastate our lives and economies for another two years. Read more

    New Bill approved

    Barbados Advocate: The Barbados Cabinet has approved the development of a new, comprehensive Metrology Bill to be enacted in legislation. Read more

    IMF: Pandemic resurgence threatens to thwart uneven Caribbean recovery

    IMF: The International Monetary Fund, IMF, says while Latin America and Caribbean economies managed to bounce back from COVID-19’s initial economic devastation in early 2020, the pandemic’s resurgence towards the end of the year threatens to thwart an uneven recovery and add to steep social and human costs. Read more

    Pay Attention to Maduro’s Aggression Against Guyana

    Real Clear World: In late January, the Venezuelan Navy intercepted and detained two Guyanese fishing vessels and 12 Guyanese citizens for two weeks. The detainment was the result of a recent decree issued by Venezuela’s leader, Nicolás Maduro. Read more

    INTERNATIONAL NEWS

    Pacific Forum split could cost region’s global role

    RNZ: Breaking up the Pacific Islands Forum would be a lost opportunity to cement the region’s global leadership on climate change and ocean conservation. Read more

    New WTO chief faces rough road ahead

    Politico.eu: Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala will make history Monday when she becomes the first African and woman to lead the increasingly bruised and batteredWorld Trade Organization. Read more

    6 reasons why Africa’s new free trade area is a global game changer

    World Economic Forum: The arrival of COVID-19 in 2020 has rapidly reshaped countries, societies and communities. Our response to the pandemic has changed political and social systems and created new social norms. Read more

    A new WTO boss who understands Africa is a good thing for the global economy

    City A.M: After diplomatic horse-trading, the new head of the WTO has been all but confirmed – former Nigerian finance minister Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala. She will be the first African to take the role. The Rt. Hon. Mark Simmonds, a former Foreign Office minister with responsibility for the continent, argues it’s a good thing for the globe. Okonjo-Iweala’s familiarity with Nigeria’s struggles will make her a strong appointment to launch a truly global effort that spreads the benefits of freer trade. Read more

    UNCTAD releases data on over 1,000 investor-state arbitration cases

    UNCTAD: The data set, provided free of charge, covers all known cases of treaty-based investor-state arbitrations as of July 2020. Read more

    EU financial services chief warns of long road ahead for UK-EU equivalence deal

    City A.M: The EU’s financial services chief has warned the UK that “there cannot be equivalence and wide divergence” in financial regulation as the battle over the City’s future relationship with the bloc heats up. Read more

    UK and EU hold ‘frank but constructive’ talks on NI trade rules

    BBC: The UK and the EU have had a “frank but constructive discussion” on problems implementing post-Brexit trade rules in Northern Ireland. Read more

    UK trade and investment factsheets

    UK.gov: A snapshot of the UK’s trade and investment positions with individual trading and investment partners overseas. Read more

    Exclusive: Brexit a bigger headache for business leaders than Covid pandemic

    City A.M: Brexit represents a bigger challenge to most UK businesses than the Covid-19 pandemic, as additional paperwork, unexpected costs and new regulatory requirements make life more difficult than temporary lockdowns. Read more

    Brexit: Trade friction ‘not teething problems’

    BBC: Increased friction in trade and travel with Europe is a product of “political choices”, a Welsh minister has said. Read more

    Half of UK exporters to EU are having Brexit difficulties, survey finds

    Guardian: Half of British exporters to the EU are facing difficulties with mounting Brexit red tape and border disruption after a month of the new rules, according to one of the most comprehensive business surveys since leaving the bloc. Read more

    Improving access to medical products through trade

    UNCTAD: Based on a review of 107 RTAs and an examination of country efforts to reduce regulatory divergence in order to facilitate trade in medical goods during the pandemic, this study attempts to advance the discussion on the need for emergency provisions in RTAs, culminating into a proposal for model RTA provisions. Read more

    Chinese tech giants like Kuaishou are listing in Hong Kong instead of U.S. after Trump’s trade war

    CNBC: Venture firm DCM just generated a $16 billion return from the IPO of Chinese social media app Kuaishou. The listing took place in Hong Kong rather than in the U.S., and DCM co-founder David Chao expects China’s most prominent tech start-ups to follow suit. Read more

    China’s trade sanctions on Australian agriculture force farmers to find new markets

    ABC (Australia): Farmers who fell victim to the multi-billion-dollar China-Australia trade spat are seeing signs for optimism as they find new customers for their produce. Read more

    Kenya, Uganda renew milk export dispute as ties sour

    Business Daily: Kenya and Uganda trade relations are on the verge of straining once again with Kampala accusing Nairobi of stopping its milk from accessing the country, and threatening to drag the matter to the East African Court of Justice. Read more

    China-Australia relations: Africa’s winemakers, miners toast ‘potential’ of trade dispute

    SCMP: For South African winemaker Vergenoegd Löw, the coronavirus pandemic could have been a disaster, but a bitter trade war between China and Australia has thrown the 325-year-old estate a lifeline. Read more

    China-Australia relations: iron ore prices helped offset weakened trade with China in 2020

    SCMP: Australia’s export figures for the final month of a tumultuous past year confirmed that momentum slowed in some trade with China amid various restrictions, but unbarred exports remained strong and buoyed overall trade between the two countries, according to the final December trade data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics. Read more

    East Asian economies drive global trade recovery, says UNCTAD report

    MenaFM: Led by trade in goods, global trade recovered in the last quarter of 2020, reducing its overall decline for the year to about 9 percent, according to UNCTAD’s new Global Trade Update published on February 10. Read more

    Strong EU trade enforcement rules enter into force

    EU: Robust new trade enforcement rules have entered into force that will further strengthen the EU’s toolbox in defending its interests. With the update of the EU’s Trade Enforcement Regulation, the EU is able to act in a broader range of circumstances. Read more

    STRAIGHT FROM THE WTO

    NEW ON THE CTLD BLOG

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