The National Working Committee on Trade will launch its website tomorrow at the Doris McKie Learning Resource Centre.{{more}}

The website was designed as part of a project which included a series of sensitization workshops on Trade agreements and their impact on Gender and Labour.

International and regional trade agreements have become the dominant trend in global trade today. The Caribbean is part of this, having signed an Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA) with the European Union just recently and currently being involved in ongoing negotiations with Canada for a bilateral trade agreement. These are in addition to regional processes – the CSME, CARIFORUM and the OECS Economic Union.

Since all these agreements have significant impact on the lives of the people in the region, it is important that they are not only informed of these processes and agreements but that any such agreements are shaped by the views and interests of the Caribbean people.

An ongoing dialogue between civil society organisations has been taking place over the past decade or so, but there is still insufficient public input in the content of these negotiations.

As part of an attempt to rectify this and to stimulate wider participation, regional civil society organisations, gathered under the aegis of the Barbados-based Caribbean Policy Development Centre (CPDC), have been establishing National Working Committees on Trade. Here in St. Vincent and the Grenadines, our Committee is being established as a sub-committee of NESDC.

The National Working Committee on Trade has carried out a series of sensitization workshops on Trade agreements and their impact on Gender and Labour. The culmination of this phase of the project is on March 31.

During the project, the website, which will be launched tomorrow, March 12, was designed. The launch will commence at 9:00am at the Doris McKie Learning Resource Centre.