MINISTER of Foreign Trade and International Cooperation, Mr. Clement Rohee, has given the assurance that his Ministry will ensure that all efforts are executed at the national level this year to shift the existing trade imbalances with Trinidad and Tobago.
He said, too, that his Ministry will adopt an aggressive stand for the removal of non-tariff barriers affecting Guyana's trade in goods. It will also generate an up-to-date inventory of requests by Member States for waivers of the Common External Tariff (CET) for industrial inputs from extra-regional sources.
"We will work to develop a close working relationship with the manufacturing sector, in collaboration with the Ministry of Tourism, Industry and Commerce to treat with the CET to advance the interests of the manufacturing sector in Guyana (and) we will work closely with the Ministry of Agriculture to ensure that exports of beef to the CARICOM market is firmly established and consistently expanded," Rohee told reporters last week while outlining his Ministry's 2004 agenda.
Rohee also said his Ministry intends to work very closely with all relevant Government Agencies and Departments as well as the Manufacturing Sector to generate a National Product List which would identify products for immediate duty free access and phased reduction of duty, among other things.
Among the agenda items for the Ministry of Foreign Trade and International Cooperation this year are:
* working closely with the National Task Force for the establishment of a National Coalition of Service Providers by the second half of 2004
* exerting every effort to stem the erosion of our market share of sugar and rice in the Caribbean
* work closely with the Guyana Trawler and Seafood Association to ensure that their interests are protected in light of the petition filed by the US Southern Shrimp Alliance as regards dumping of shrimps on the US market
* the ministry will also actively support the Special Products (SP) Group and Special Safeguard Mechanism (SSM) Alliance of 33 countries to ensure that the concepts of Special Products and Special Safeguard Mechanism is given due attention during the negotiations on Agriculture at the World Trade Organisation (WTO).
Rohee also said his Ministry will continue to engage and build, in collaboration with CARICOM, alliances with other geographic groupings such as the G20, the LDC and the African Union with a view to advancing our positions at the WTO.
"We will collaborate with the WTO and relevant Government Agencies and Departments to ensure that an appropriate and workable capacity building programme is developed and implemented in accordance with the results of Guyana's Trade Policy Review at the WTO," Rohee said.
"We will generate an inventory of Trade Barriers and Rules of Origin that are currently in place in the European Union, the United States and Canada that impact negatively on Guyana's trade with these countries and develop a strategy approach to have them removed," Rohee posited.
"Together with CARICOM, we will continue to press for the Hemispheric Cooperation Programme (HPC) and the Regional Integration Fund (RIF) to be kept as separate and distinct concepts within the FTAA process," the Minister added.
"We will work closely with the Argentine authorities to finalize and sign a Trade Agreement with Argentina in the first quarter of 2004 (and) we will work closely with the Colombian authorities to finalise and sign a Trade Agreement with Colombia in the second half of 2004," Rohee said.
He also noted that with respect to sugar and rice, his Ministry intends to work closely with the stakeholders in these sectors on a number of critical and important issues.
Meanwhile, the Foreign Trade and International Cooperation Minister reported that his ministry "performed very well" in 2003, despite some constraints.
He said, too, that with good cooperation, proper planning and teamwork, the Ministry of Foreign Trade and International Cooperation will continue to record successes in 2004.