elizabeth morgan caricom

There was quite a bit of activity around the Free Trade Area of the Americas negotiations, which were abandoned in 2005. In both, strengthening regional integration, including food security, were considered necessary for the region’s recovery and future development. This visit was postponed. By Elizabeth Morgan As you know, an objective of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) in 2020 is strengthening relations with Africa through the African Union (AU). Several sugar estates across the island have ceased production, with lands being allocated to housing, farming, and even the building of a city. These remaining Caribbean sugar producers, members of the Sugar Association of the Caribbean (SAC), are now seeking to supply the regional domestic markets. These prime lands should not become mainly housing schemes and golf courses, especially as the analysts are pointing to the need to further diversify the economies and to focus on food security and exports.Sugar has been the oldest integrated industry in the Caribbean, from the cultivation of sugar cane to the production of brown sugar, molasses and rum.

Another CARICOM Day has passed. A summit was scheduled around the time of the Commonwealth Heads of …

Its health benefits may be doubtful – we certainly consume too much of it – but there remains a demand for sugar and, in fact, for ethanol and rum. It was acknowledged to varying degrees across the region and at diplomatic missions overseas. So far, it seems plantation white is mainly produced in Belize.Reading through various regional newspapers, sugar seems to be an industry limping on crutches. Canada’s principal trading partners are the USA and Mexico, hence it has focused on the revision of the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) which has now become the US-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA). Appleton recently announced its intention to cease producing sugar.Regarding rum, with sugar production levels falling and the volume of rum produced increasing, for many years now, most of the molasses used have been imported, requiring the redefining of ‘Caribbean’ rum.I am not among those who think that because sugar was linked to slavery, it has no more value and should be abandoned. Between 2015 and 2018, Canada’s investments in the Caribbean, including Cuba and the Dominican Republic, were valued at US$864 million. A few countries marked it on Monday, August 3. Photo; Video; CARICOM Heads of Government will be concluding their Intersessional Meeting in Barbados today. The proposal now is to ensure that the common external tariff level is maintained in CARICOM member states and produce to supply the region. Sugar has been the oldest integrated industry in the Caribbean, from the cultivation of sugar cane to the production of brown sugar, molasses and rum. Is it desirable, and feasible, to expand trade and investments between Canada and CARICOM Member States?Canada’s Prime Minister Justin Trudeau (right) shakes hands with Jamaica’s Prime Minister Andrew Holness at the 2018 G-7 Summit in La Malbaie, Quebec, Canada. Elizabeth Morgan is a specialist in international trade policy and international politics. Canada was unsuccessful in its bid for a non-permanent seat on the Security Council. At one point, I thought Barbados intended to follow St Kitts and Nevis and Trinidad and Tobago in exiting sugar. In 2019, Canada remained in the world’s top ten (10) economies. CARICOM members must be certain that they are coming to terms with the complexities of the world as it now exist and considering the future. Some amount of brown sugar was supplied in the regional market. The Sugar Industry Authority has said that in five years, sugar cane production declined by 52 per cent and sugar production by 44 per cent.

Caribbean production had also declined. In Trinidad and Tobago, I am reading that there could be a future for sugar.In Jamaica, it seems that things are falling apart.