It underlined the crucial importance of external trade arrangements in the future of the 15-member Community - now expanded by Haiti's formal accession in July - and the range and complexity of the agenda of trade negotiations.

Reviews were conducted of the Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA), the EU-ACP Regional Economic Partnership Agreement (REPA) and the World Trade Organisation (WTO) process.

Between them, the three negotiating theatres impact the entire spectrum of exports of goods and services that under-pin CARICOM's small, open economies.

In the FTAA, preparations have to be completed for the Ministerial Meeting in Quito, Ecuador at the beginning of November, where key decisions on the content and future course of the negotiations will be taken.

Negotiations with the European Union (EU) on the REPA commence at the end of September in Brussels. And in Geneva, an intense WTO Work Programme is under way in preparation for next year's 5th Ministerial WTO Meeting in Cancun, Mexico.

There are "cross-cutting" issues that are common to all three negotiation theatres: notably Special and Differential Treatment for small economies and the treatment of agriculture and of services.

Others issues such as the timetable and content are specific to each of the three negotiations; for example how far the "Singapore issues" of investment, government procurement and competition will be addressed in the WTO.

On all of these, COTED faces the challenging tasks of considering the economic implications of alternative negotiating outcomes and of harmonising the negotiating positions of a 15-member grouping with wide diversity in their economies.

The Port of Spain meeting also dramatised the central role of COTED in the political coordination of these positions.

The vast majority of CARICOM Trade Ministers were there, as well as representatives of the Dominican Republic and Cuba, which are members of the CARICOM Regional Negotiating Machinery (CRNM). And dialogues were held with the top external trade negotiators of the United States and Mexico.

The dialogue with the United States Trade Representative (USTR), Robert Zoellick, confirmed a significant improvement in both the tone and content of U.S.-CARICOM relations in respect of FTAA issues, after the disagreements that had emerged earlier in the year.

The USTR confirmed his country's support for the compromise reached at the recent meeting of the FTAA Trade Negotiating Committee in Santo Domingo.

This will allow CARICOM to start negotiations on the basis of higher tariffs for a limited number of agricultural products, still to be defined.

Whether this will be an element in a comprehensive package of special and differential treatment for the smaller economies in the FTAA is still to be determined.

So far, the position is that this concession will be limited only to the CARICOM group. And the U.S. continues to emphasise "capacity-building" in the negotiation and implementation of trade liberalisation agreements as the chief features of special treatment for small economies.

The meeting with the Mexican Economy Minister, Luis Ernesto Derbez, signified the growing pressure to ensure a successful outcome to next year's 5th WTO Ministerial Meeting, which Mexico will host and Minister Derbez will chair.

The WTO Work Programme in preparation for this meeting is behind schedule; and the gulf between developed and many developing countries on the WTO negotiating agenda is as wide as ever.