Wednesday, February 3 2010

“Fifteen months have passed (since signing the agreement), we need to move forward. People need to start biting the bullet in terms of taking on the business of exporting and the purpose of this workshop is to get people to export. The definition for success for us is not that we had a good talk session, it is not that we taught people about demographics and things like that, the definition of a good session for us is when we actually start to see the numbers of export because in the end the Ministry of Trade does not export, businesses export services and goods and the reality is that there needs to be a move forward. Sugar is dead, so is bananas, now is the time to go,” he said at the opening of the ministry’s two day awareness session for manufacturers on doing business in the EU at the Trinidad Hilton Hotel, Port-of-Spain.

Browne explained that while Trinidad and Tobago exports more to Europe, this is only because of gas and oil. “If we were to take out gas related products, there would be a trade deficit,” he said. “I think the idea is that people are always afraid of change and new things. We are a small country dealing with a big market and the markets are big. We are talking about France with a couple hundred million people, 60 million in Germany and 1.5 million at best for us,” he added. The minister said that local manufacturers need to look at developing their products for niche markets rather than focusing on the entire population.



Browne said while there is enough information on details of the EPA, private sector was concerned with the lack of information on how to exploit the European markets. “It is anticipated that what this Workshop will do differently is to provide advice and guidance on how to break into some European markets. Given our deficiencies in implementing free trade agreements, it is clear that more information on market research techniques, export logistics, meeting standards and quality requirements etc is necessary. It is recognised that businesses are at different stages of readiness for export. Accordingly every effort is made to address both the new and experienced exporter, in the expectation that the information provided would spur on the existing exporter to export more to Europe and would also encourage the non-exporter to see the potential and begin exporting to Europe,” he said.



Holland and the United Kingdom were expected to be examined by manufacturers of goods yesterday while service providers would look at the same two countries today but from their perspective.