Haiti gets preferential markets for42 trade items
Published:Wednesday | December 8, 2010 | 12:00 AM
The Caribbean Community (Caricom) trade ministers have signed off on an agreement for Haiti to export within the bloc's single market on a non-reciprocal preferential basis for three years as it recovers from a series of disasters.
The ratification last week came six months after Haiti made the request in May.
The plan has already been endorsed by CARICOM heads of government.
Last week's agreement at the Council for Trade and Economic Development (COTED) 31st meeting in Guyana, which wrapped up December 3, also established an initial list of 42 items that Haiti could trade unfettered, effective January 1, 2011, the Caricom Secretariat said.
They include paintings and drawings, peanut butter, corn flour, wooden tableware and kitchenware, basket work and cocoa beans.
"Member states will continue consultations towards approval of additional items from an original list which Haiti submitted," Caricom said.
A new website for the Caricom Single Market and Economy (CSME) unit - www.csmeonline.org - was also unveiled at the meeting.
Chair of the meeting, Senator Joanne Massiah, minister of state in the Ministry of Legal Affairs for Antigua and Barbuda, advocated that COTED should also start mapping the technical-assistance requirement of Haiti for its eventual participation in CSME.