Se­nior gov­ern­ment of­fi­cials are in the fi­nal leg of ne­go­ti­a­tions with Guatemalan of­fi­cials to sign off on a Par­tial Scope Agree­ment.The T&T del­e­ga­tion in­cludes se­nior of­fi­cials of the Min­istry of Trade, In­dus­try and In­vest­ment; the Cus­toms and Ex­cise Di­vi­sion of the Min­istry of Fi­nance and the Econ­o­my, So­lic­i­tor Gen­er­al De­part­ment, Min­istry of Food Pro­duc­tion, ex­porTT, Trinidad and To­ba­go Man­u­fac­tur­ers As­so­ci­a­tion and Trinidad and To­ba­go Cham­ber of In­dus­try and Com­merce.

The agen­da items in­clude out­stand­ing trade is­sues, rules of ori­gin and in­vest­ment is­sues aris­ing from the pre­vi­ous ne­go­ti­a­tions held in Guatemala City last Oc­to­ber which were be­ing treat­ed via video con­fer­ence.

The suc­cess­ful com­ple­tion of ne­go­ti­a­tions for this Agree­ment will see T&T ben­e­fit­ting from more favourable/pref­er­en­tial ac­cess with a re­duc­tion or re­moval of tar­iffs/cus­tom du­ties in­to the Guatemala mar­ket for a range of prod­ucts in­clud­ing canned chick­en sausage, peanut but­ter, ground­nuts, pep­per sauce, lu­bri­cat­ing grease, clay tiles, build­ing bricks, co-ax­i­al ca­ble, au­to­mat­ic cir­cuit break­ers and steel­band in­stru­ments.

Most of the en­er­gy and en­er­gy prod­ucts al­ready re­ceive du­ty free sta­tus. Guatemala will have ac­cess to the T&T mar­ket for prod­ucts in­clud­ing cer­tain flow­ers, fresh fruits, dec­o­ra­tive can­dles, table­ware and tex­tiles.