Sen­a­tor the Ho­n­ourable Paula Gopee-Scoon, Min­is­ter of Trade and In­dus­try, met with a del­e­ga­tion from the Unit­ed King­dom (UK) on Thurs­day 25th No­vem­ber, 2021. The Min­is­ter ex­pressed an­tic­i­pa­tion that the mar­ket ac­cess op­por­tu­ni­ties af­ford­ed un­der the EPA would be re­alised through greater ex­ports to the UK mar­ket and a more favourable trade bal­ance. De­tails fol­low in this press re­lease from the Min­istry of Trade:

Sen­a­tor the Ho­n­ourable Paula Gopee-Scoon, Min­is­ter of Trade and In­dus­try, met with a del­e­ga­tion from the Unit­ed King­dom (UK) joint­ly head­ed by Mr Dar­ren Hen­ry, UK Prime Min­is­ter’s Trade En­voy to the Caribbean and Mem­ber of Par­lia­ment, and Mr. Jonathan Knott, Her Majesty’s Trade Com­mis­sion­er to Latin Amer­i­ca and the Caribbean, on Thurs­day 25th No­vem­ber, 2021. Al­so in at­ten­dance was Her Ex­cel­len­cy Ms. Har­ri­et Cross, British High Com­mis­sion­er to Trinidad and To­ba­go, rep­re­sen­ta­tives from the High Com­mis­sion, and of­fi­cials from the Min­istry of Trade and In­dus­try (MTI).

In wel­com­ing the del­e­ga­tion, Sen­a­tor the Ho­n­ourable Paula Gopee-Scoon, Min­is­ter of Trade and In­dus­try, met with a del­e­ga­tion from the Unit­ed King­dom (UK) This is ev­i­dent by the es­tab­lish­ment of the most re­cent CAR­I­FO­RUM-UK Eco­nom­ic Part­ner­ship Agree­ment (EPA) which, amongst oth­er ben­e­fits, per­mits Trinidad and To­ba­go’s ex­porters’ valu­able and pref­er­en­tial du­ty-free mar­ket ac­cess op­por­tu­ni­ties in­to the UK with the ex­cep­tion of prod­ucts such as arms and am­mu­ni­tions. Both par­ties dis­cussed their shared vi­sions for im­prov­ing trade by ad­vanc­ing the CAR­I­FO­RUM-UK EPA. The Min­is­ter ex­pressed an­tic­i­pa­tion that the mar­ket ac­cess op­por­tu­ni­ties af­ford­ed un­der the EPA would be re­alised through greater ex­ports to the UK mar­ket and a more favourable trade bal­ance.

Trinidad and To­ba­go has been a net im­porter from the UK over the pe­ri­od 2015-2021, and our coun­try’s main ex­port has been Methanol and en­er­gy re­lat­ed prod­ucts, while some non-en­er­gy prod­ucts such as Aro­mat­ic bit­ters, iron and steel, al­co­holic bev­er­ages among oth­ers have been mak­ing progress. How­ev­er, the top im­ports from the UK in­clud­ed lu­bri­cat­ing greas­es and oils, brake flu­ids, kerosene type jet fu­el and urea, and non-en­er­gy prod­ucts in­clud­ing mo­tor ve­hi­cles, medica­ments, whiskey, ma­chin­ery parts, books, choco­late, cloth­ing, cheese and tubes and pipes.

Dis­cus­sions fo­cused on av­enues for grow­ing trade for Trinidad and To­ba­go’s niche and non-en­er­gy prod­ucts through trade mis­sions, we­bi­na­rs and lever­ag­ing the di­as­po­ra. The UK del­e­ga­tion in­di­cat­ed that the EPA was a new chap­ter in the trade re­la­tions with the Re­gion and that the goal was to dou­ble the vol­ume of trade be­tween the par­ties to the Agree­ment. In or­der to achieve this, the UK is pur­su­ing im­proved trade in­fra­struc­ture with the Re­gion, which in­cludes the up­dat­ed trade agree­ment and greater trade pro­mo­tion and fa­cil­i­ta­tion ac­tiv­i­ties.

Ad­di­tion­al­ly, op­por­tu­ni­ties for in­vest­ments and im­prov­ing trade in ser­vices in the ar­eas of tourism, the cre­ative in­dus­tries, and pro­fes­sion­al ser­vices were al­so dis­cussed. The Min­is­ter in­di­cat­ed that His Ex­cel­len­cy Vish­nu Dhan­paul, the re­cent­ly ap­point­ed High Com­mis­sion­er for Trinidad and To­ba­go to the Unit­ed King­dom would wel­come sim­i­lar dis­cus­sions on trade and in­vest­ment op­por­tu­ni­ties with the team.

Dis­cus­sions were al­so held as it re­lates to il­lic­it trade, with both par­ties ex­press­ing con­cern for the health and eco­nom­ic chal­lenges of this ac­tiv­i­ty on both cit­i­zens and busi­ness­es. They agreed to in­crease col­lab­o­ra­tion and sup­port Trinidad and To­ba­go in the fight to­ward the re­duc­tion and elim­i­na­tion of il­lic­it trade. The del­e­ga­tion’s vis­it un­der­scored the com­mit­ment to strength­en the trad­ing re­la­tion­ship, the im­por­tance of the EPA and work­ing to­geth­er to en­sure the growth, sus­tain­abil­i­ty and eco­nom­ic de­vel­op­ment of both coun­tries. The Min­is­ter as Chair of CAR­I­FO­RUM on trade re­lat­ed mat­ters un­til 30 June 2022, gave the as­sur­ance to con­tin­ue to ad­vance trade re­la­tions with the UK and the adop­tion and im­ple­men­ta­tion of the EPA.