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.