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02/07/2005

Press Release

NGO Members to be Trained on Trade Issues

The on-going effort to strengthen the capacity of the region's civil society to understand and participate in discussions related to the regional and external trade negations in which Caribbean Community countries are currently engaged will continue this month.

Assistance is being delivered through a series of Training of Trainers workshops that the Caribbean Policy Development Centre (CPDC) is holding with its National Working Committee on Trade (NWCT), whose members are scattered throughout the non-governmental sector in several Caribbean countries. The Latin America and Caribbean Trade Project (LAC Trade), a United States Agency for International Development (USAID) initiative being implemented by the consulting firm CARANA Corporation, is assisting in the venture.

The NWCT comprises interest groups such as labour union members; private sector workers in key areas such as the manufacturing, agriculture and services sector; church and religious based organizations; community based organizations; the media; women and youth groups; as well as NGO members, workers and volunteers.

The main aim of the training program will be to enhance the technical knowledge of the current process of trade policy and negotiations, primarily related to the Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA), the World Trade Organization, the African Caribbean and Pacific/European Union Cotonou negotiations and the Caribbean Single Market and Economy.

Organizers of the workshops said the national level of engagement and mobilization is critical given the expected impact that these various negotiations and processes will have on a wide cross section of the community. They said this is critical especially since many governments are under-resourced both in terms of their financial and human capacity, which inhibits their ability to do the kind of national education and awareness raising that is needed to ensure that Caribbean citizens are prepared and mobilized.

A two-day regional workshop in the series slated for St. Lucia in mid-February, followed by one-day national workshops in Trinidad, Antigua and Jamaica.

It is anticipated that persons trained at the workshops will form a core group that will then be used to train a larger proportion of persons from throughout all sectors of civil society.

For further information please contact CPDC at cpdc@caribnet.net or telephone 437-6055.