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03/29/2004

Press Release

Regional Workshop on Trade for Journalists to be held in Antigua

BUSINESS journalists from around the Caribbean are getting an opportunity to strengthen their understanding and reporting on external trade issues.

This opportunity is coming through a Regional Workshop on Trade for Journalists/Media Practitioners, which is being co-sponsored by the Caribbean Regional Negotiating Machinery (CRNM) and the United States Agency for International Development-funded Caribbean Trade and Competitiveness Development Project (C-TRADECOM).

According to Ms. Bronwen Alsop, C-TRADECOM's Civil Society Outreach Program Manager, the objectives of the workshop are to expose and sensitize journalists from each Caribbean Community (CARICOM) member state on external trade issues and strengthen the capacity of national media houses to critically and independently analyze ongoing trade negotiation issues, with a view to better informing and consulting with their constituents.

Additionally, the workshop is aimed at strengthening the media's capacity to participate effectively in public discourse and consultations on external trade issues with a variety of stakeholders, and expose the tools and sources available for gathering information in the area of trade policy and negotiations to the participants.

Among resource persons scheduled to participate in the workshop are Ambassador Richard Bernal, Director General of the CRNM; Corey Henry, Associate Editor of Inside Washington Trade; Edward Ince, founder and owner of Prisma, an outsourcing services firm specializing in the financial services and airline industry in the Central America and Caribbean region; and Henry Gill, Senior Director of the CRNM.

Discussion topics at the workshop, which is a follow-up to one held in Jamaica last year, will include: The Role of the Journalist in A Globalized World: Some Perspectives for the Caribbean Media Practitioner; CARICOM's External Trade Priorities; External Trade and Caribbean Private Sector Competitiveness; The WTO: Cancun and Beyond; The FTAA: Miami and Beyond; the CARICOM Single Market and Economy; and Sourcing and Researching Trade Information.

At the close of the workshop it is expected that media practitioners will have further strengthened their understanding of external trade policy fundamentals and deepened their knowledge and analytical experience regarding multilateral, hemispheric, and regional trade agreements.

Additionally, it is expected that workshop participants will have an enhanced capacity and additional skills to collect and disseminate information on trade and thus increase their coverage of external trade developments and related issues.

The April 4-7 workshop will be held at the Royal Antigua Beach Resort in Antigua.

C-TRADECOM is a region-wide USAID-supported project intended to address the issues of competitiveness and trade expansion for the countries of CARICOM and the Dominican Republic, with a special emphasis on the countries of the Organization of Eastern Caribbean States (OECS). This workshop is part of C-TRADECOM's regional Civil Society Outreach Program (CSOP), which aims to raise public awareness of trade issues in fourteen CARICOM countries. For more information visit www.c-trade.org

For further information please contact: Patrick Knight, C-TRADECOM's Communications Specialist, at pknight@carana.com or (246) 228-8893.