Current Projects

Project: CRNM/C-TRADECOM Regional Workshop on Trade for Journalists/Media Practitioners
Agency/Counterpart: Caribbean Regional Negotiating Machinery (CRNM)

Overview

The Caribbean Regional Negotiating Machinery (CRNM) and the Caribbean Trade and Competitiveness Development Project (C-TRADECOM) co-sponsored a ‘Regional Workshop on Trade for Journalists/Media Practitioners’ at the Royal Antiguan Beach and Tennis Resort, Antigua, April 4-7, 2004.

The target group for the Workshop were ‘Business Editors’, in the case of the print media, and ‘News Coordinators’, in the case of the broadcast media, from all CARICOM countries. However, senior journalists with business reporting portfolios were also invited to the Workshop. The Workshop was a follow up to, and attempted to build on the success of, a similar event held in Montego Bay, Jamaica, June 30 to July 1, 2003, to which journalists/media practitioners from across the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) were invited.

Workshop Objectives:

a) Bringing together a select group of senior media practitioners from each CARICOM country, to expose and sensitize them to external trade issues;
b) Strengthening national media-houses’ capacity to critically and ‘independently’ analyze ongoing trade negotiation issues, with a view to better informing and consulting with their constituents;
c) Through points of contact, forge stronger relations with the regional media, fostering a mutually beneficial working relationship;
d) Exposing focal points to the tools and sources available for gathering information in the area of trade policy and negotiations; and,
e) Strengthening the media’s capacity to participate effectively in public discourse and consultations on external trade issues with a variety of stakeholders.

Speakers/Presenters included:
Mr. Corey Henry, Associate Editor of Inside Washington Trade
Mr. Edward Ince, Founder and Owner of Prisma, an outsourcing services firm specializing in the financial services and airline industry in Central American and Caribbean regions
Ambassador Richard Bernal, Director General of the CRNM
Mr. Henry Gill, Senior Director of the CRNM
A wide range of CRNM Technical Staff members

Following the workshop it is expected that media practitioners will have further strengthened their understanding of external trade policy fundamentals and deepened their knowledge and analytic expertise regarding multilateral, hemispheric, and regional trade agreements. Additionally, it is expected that these media practitioners 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.