Chamber official urges caution with free trade

Trinidad and Tobago’s trade challenge is how to integrate all these negotiations in order to ensure that, “we don’t give away something in one area that will harm us in another,” according to director of the International Trade Negotiation (ITN) unit for the Port-of-Spain Chamber of Industry and Commerce, Lawrence Placide. Placide noted that there are currently too many trade negotiations taking place and the number keepsrising. He was speaking on the topic, “New Trading Alignments: Implications for the Credit Union Sector,” at the Chamber of Commerce Building, Westmoor-ings on Tuesday. Trade agreements have been increasing, said Placide, particularly over the last 12 years, and as a result, there have been numerous bi-lateral negotiations. “They have been developing free trade agreements and custom unions agreements, and like Caricom and the European Union, are moving towards common markets,” he said, noting that “these agreements generally give preferences to some of the partners over others.” 
 
He also pointed out that to date, all negotiations centered heavily on the trade of goods, particularly the WTO agreement. But with the FTAA, there has been considerable inclusions of services into the negotiations, along with intellectual property and government procurement, he said. According to Placide, there is currently a debate going on concerning the number of negotiations taking place. He added that Government may not be able to proceed as freely as it did in the past in terms of trade because of the binding commitments it is forging with other countries. “If we don’t live up to our commitments in the future, other countries will be a in position to bring sanctions against us,” said Placide. He put forth a case for the induction of the Caribbean Court of Appeal. According to Placide, the CCJ is an integral part of making trade agreements work for Caricom“Right now, there is no place for Caricom to settle trade disputes. We need the CCJ for trade protection in dealing with other Caribbean countries,” said Placide. He also noted that credit unions were not part of the FTAA negotiations currently taking place at the Hilton Trinidad. He said it was up to the unions to complete the research needed to present a case to the Government, on why they should be included in the FTAA.