Head of the French Re­gion­al Eco­nom­ic De­part­ment to T&T, Stephan Du­bost re­cent­ly paid a cour­tesy call to Min­is­ter of Trade and In­dus­try, Paula Gopee-Scoon to ex­pand trade and in­vest­ment be­tween both coun­tries.

This was Du­bost’s first vis­it to T&T fol­low­ing his ap­point­ment in Sep­tem­ber 2022.

Gopee-Scoon said the vis­it fo­cused on “com­mer­cial diplo­ma­cy” be­tween T&T and France, adding that it was wel­comed.

A press re­lease from the Trade Min­istry said both coun­tries con­tin­ue to main­tain good trade re­la­tions, as demon­strat­ed by T&T’s favourable trade bal­ance with France of $1.96 bil­lion in 2022.

This coun­try’s main ex­ports to France in­clud­ed an­hy­drous am­mo­nia, urea, methanol, LNG, rum and food prepa­ra­tions.

The main im­ports from France in­clud­ed medica­ments, brandy and sparkling wine.

Dis­cus­sions al­so took in­to con­sid­er­a­tion sev­er­al is­sues af­fect­ing trade be­tween both coun­tries, such as mar­ket ac­cess.

Both par­ties al­so touched on the ac­ces­si­bil­i­ty of T&T’s food and bev­er­age sec­tor in France in­clud­ing spices, pep­per sauces, al­co­hol and choco­lates; mar­ket ac­cess to the French Caribbean Out­er­most Re­gions (FCORs), as well as ship­ping op­tions for trans­port­ing goods from T&T to the FCORs.

An­oth­er im­por­tant as­pect ex­plored was ex­pand­ing cul­tur­al ex­changes as well as in­vest­ments in the cre­ative in­dus­tries.

These in­clude cre­at­ing plat­forms to fa­cil­i­tate the spread of so­ca and steel­pan in France.

Al­so present at the meet­ing was Di­di­er Chabert, Am­bas­sador Ex­tra­or­di­nary and Plenipo­ten­tiary of the French Re­pub­lic to T&T.