Business / Trade in Caribbean
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JAMAICA, 2016/03/20
The co-chair of government’s Economic Programme Oversight Committee (EPOC), Richard Byles, says there is growing interest part private sector stakeholders in investing in Jamaica.
“Additional and additional, there is enthusiasm…You see it in the Jamaica Chamber of Commerce business confidence survey. At the same time as you talk to the private sector, there is a lot additional optimism and hope being expressed. I think a lot of of them feel that the worst is behind us and the economy has a luck to grow,” he said.
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CUBA, 2016/01/28
The Obama government is loosening the U.S. trade embargo on Cuba with a new round of regulations allowing American companies to sell to Cuba on credit and export a potentially wide range of products to the Cuban government for the initial time, officials said Tuesday.
The changes are President Barack Obama's third attempt to spur U.S.-Cuba commerce despite an embargo that still prohibits most forms of trade with the island.
U.S. travel to Cuba has exploded since Obama and Cuban President Raul Castro declared detente in 2014. But U.S. hopes of building wider trade between American businesses and Cuba's private sector have been largely frustrated by Congressional reluctance to end the embargo itself and by the island's labyrinthine restrictions on imports, exports and private business.
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AMERICAS, 2015/12/15
Exports from Latin America and the Caribbean will drop about 14 % in 2015 due to a steep decline in prices and weak request for the region’s major exports from key trading partners, according to a new statement from the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB).
The IDB’s “Latin American and Caribbean Trade Trend Estimates 2016” annual statement notes that exports dropped for the third year in a row, with the decline intensifying and spreading to virtually all nations in the region. Only two nations posted positive, albeit moderate increase, while in most of the economies the drop in overseas shipments exceeded that of the rest of the world.
“This trade contraction, which is the worst since the 2009 collapse, is a wake-up call on the need to implement export diversification policies,” said Paolo Giordano, Principal Economist of the Bank’s Integration and Trade Sector and coordinator of the statement.
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TRINIDAD AND TOBAGO, 2015/11/28
The Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) has approved a US$25 million loan to Trinidad and Tobago to help the twin-island republic improve its trade facilitation processes, part of an effort to boost and diversify the economy.
The loan will help strengthen the country’s Single Electronic Window for Trade and Business Facilitation Project (TTBizLink), a fasten business portal created in 2009 that simplifies foreign trade and business processes by providing around-the-clock access to relevant government services.
The platform seeks to substantially reduce time and costs of trade and business transactions for private sector users while gathering and sharing relevant data part government agencies to simplify processes and optimize revenue collection.
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ARUBA, 2015/11/27
The United States Agency for International Improvment(USAID) and the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) today signed agreements that will see nations of the eastern and southern Caribbean benefiting from US$165 million in development assistance.
An estimated US$89 million will target the reduction of youth involvement in crime and violence in target communities, while US$52 million is designated to achieving epidemic control of HIV/AIDS part key populations, and $31 million will go towards reducing the risks to human and natural assets resulting from climate vulnerability.
CARICOM Secretary General Ambassador Irwin LaRocque and USAID Eastern and Southern Caribbean Mission Director, Christopher Cushing, initialled the five-year Development Objective Agreements (DOAGs) at the CARICOM Secretariat in Guyana.
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GERMANY, 2015/08/26
“We could broaden our trade. We need reliable investment conditions”, she said in Brasilia as she pressed for better access to Brazilian markets for German pharmaceutical products and medical technology, for example. German companies have invested additional than 19 billion Euros in Brazil.
German government officials want to use the trip to lobby for German companies to be involved in a US$57 billion infrastructure investment program in railways, harbors and airports announced by Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff. German Chancellor Angela Merkel pressed Brazil's government on Thursday to further open its markets to foreign companies, and said she saw an opportunity to reach a free-trade transaction between the European Union and the Mercosur trade bloc. Merkel is on a two-day visit to Brazil with a large delegation of government officials and representatives from German companies.
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CUBA, 2014/12/18
The United States and Cuba are to start talks to normalise diplomatic ties in a historic shift in relations between the two nations, President Barak Obama announced Wednesday.
In a nationwide broadcast, Obama said Washington will as well open an embassy in Havana in the coming months.
The moves are part of a transaction that saw the release of American Alan Gross by Cuba and includes the release of three Cubans jailed in Florida for spying.
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CUBA, 2014/06/02
The United States imposed an embargo on the communist-run island additional than 50 years ago following the triumph of the Cuban Revolution. Members of the Cuban community in the US have criticized the visit.
They accuse the Castro brothers' government of persecuting political opponents and violating basic human rights.
Cuban-American Senator Robert Menendez said political opponents continued to be arrested “without justification,” in Cuba. “Such conditions hardly seem an attractive opportunity for any responsible business leader,” Senator Menendez was quoted. Members of the trade delegation said that they were in Cuba to assess the trade possibilities in a post-embargo scenario.
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TAIWAN AREA, 2014/03/08
Taiwan is providing an EC$13.1 million (One EC dollar = US$0.37 cents) grant to St. Lucia to fund three projects identified by the Kenny Anthony government.
A government statement said that EC$8.3 million will be used for the Constituency Development Programme (CDP); EC$$4.2 m for the St. Judes Hospital Reconstruction project and just over half a million dollars to upgrade the island’s fishing industry.
\"It is my firm belief that through our joint effort and cooperation programme, the existing close relations between St .Lucia and the Republic of China (Taiwan) will be further strengthened and continue to bring benefits to our two peoples,\" said Taiwanese Ambassador James Chang.
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TRINIDAD AND TOBAGO, 2014/03/05
Prime Minister Kamla Persad Bissessar leaves Trinidad Thursday for a one week official visit to China hoping to improve relations with the Asian country in a number of areas inclunding trade, energy and security.
A government statement said that the prime minister’s delegation would include Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Dookeran, Trade, Industry and Investment Minister Vasant Barath and Energy and Energy Affairs Minister Kevin Ramnarine.
The statement noted that over the last few years, Trinidad and Tobago’s regional leadership in trade has been tremendously strengthened and that the “relationship with the People’s Republic of China has proved to be very mutually beneficial for our citizens, and our respective economies”.
