Valley: We still believe in FTAA

TRADE and Industry Minister Ken Valley yesterday said Trinidad and Tobago remained committed to the establishment of the Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA), even though it was vigorously pursuing the creation of the Caribbean Single Market and Economy (CSME) and possibly a Free Trade Area of the Association of Caribbean States (FTAACS).

Speaking with reporters after yesterday’s opening ceremony of the Eighth Inter-Sessional Preparatory Meeting of the ACS Ministerial Council, Valley, chairman of an ACS trade committee mandated to explore the possibility of the ACS, declared, “We still believe in the FTAA.” The minister said various Caricom-led missions are continuing to lobby regional nations to support TT’s bid for the FTAA Secretariat, with the latest one taking place last week. Valley expected the FTAA process to get back on track in March 2005, after the US presidential elections in November. Valley reiterated that Caricom already had free trade agreements with several nations in the region (Cuba, Venezuela, the Dominican Republic, Colombia and Costa Rica, which is being expanded to incorporate all of Central America) and trade talks are ongoing with other Andean nations. He predicted that regional trade development would occur “on an incremental basis,” starting with the CSME and expanding outwards to include the FTAACS and FTAA later on.

Earlier in the proceedings, Foreign Affairs Minister Knowlson Gift said the greater Caribbean region stood to gain tremendous benefits from TT becoming the site of the FTAA Secretariat. Gift said while the international landscape had changed considerably since the ACS was established on July 24, 1994 in Cartagena, Colombia, the reasons for its establishment remained relevant today. During yesterday’s ceremony, TT became a signatory to ACS agreements on regional air transport and the creation of a sustainable tourism zone in the region. Jamaican Minister of State in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade, Delano Franklyn, said the former agreement would assist regional airlines such as BWIA and LIAT tremendously. The ACS is also carded to hold two major tourism conferences in TT in October and November.