Minister of Foreign Affairs, Foreign Trade and International Business, Christopher Sinckler

This country is being represented at the sixth Caribbean-UK Forum in London by Minister of Foreign Affairs, Foreign Trade and International Business, Christopher Sinckler.

The forum which is being held from July 14 to 16 is important in promoting and strengthening the unique ties that exist between the United Kingdom and the Caribbean Community.

Following the two-day event, Minister Sinckler will attend the CARICOM Trade Ministers’ World Trade Organisation (WTO) Caucus in London from July 17 to 18, as well as the WTO Mini-Ministerial Meeting in Geneva, Switzerland from July 21 to 25.

The WTO meetings are being held in an effort to push the Doha Round of trade talks towards conclusion. Negotiations in the WTO have been stalled since 2006 due to contentious issues in the area of agriculture, industrial goods and services.

In the current agricultural negotiations, contention surrounds the issue of special products and the special safeguard mechanism (SSM) which is of importance to small vulnerable economies (SVEs) such as Barbados. 

In respect of special products there is some dissatisfaction among developing countries regarding the implementation of tariff rate quotas and tariff capping on special products.

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