Prime Minister pushes single company register in CARICOM to ease trade restrictions

Trinidad and Tobago Prime Minister, Dr. Keith Rowley said there needs to be a single company register within the region, in order to encourage entrepreneurial recognition with the Caribbean Community’s (CARICOM) Single Market and Economy (CSME).

The Prime Minister was speaking at the launch of the premier Agri-Food Investment Forum and Expo at the National Cultural Centre (NCC), Georgetown on Thursday.Dr. Rowley said himself and Barbados’s Prime Minister Mia Mottley, have commenced discussions on establishing a platform where registered companies operate within the confines of a single market.

The PM stressed that the intention is that once a company is registered within a CARICOM state, it is deemed registered everywhere in the CARICOM. “It is the simple straightforward way to encourage entrepreneurial recognition under the law. It will remove a lot of the impediments,” PM Rowley said.

Dr. Rowley explained that if CARICOM is to significantly increase agricultural production, it must address all the issues affecting the trade of goods, and services within the region. The TT PM noted that other issues to be addressed include transport, therefore, he used the opportunity to call on international partners to lend support in this regard.

“If you really want to help CARICOM, then help the team of governments to fund and have operating vessels of that nature to bring people together by seas…It has been done; it needs to be done. Goods and services by sea after by rail is cheapest,’’ Dr. Rowley declared. PM Rowley while expressing his full support for the forum driven by President Irfaan Ali, he said Guyana’s role in achieving food security within CARICOM is important.

“Guyana’s role in giving us the opportunity to the state at which we can produce to be a participant in feeding ourselves is important, and that’s why I am here to support Guyana’s initiative driven by President Ali and the Vice President (Dr. Bharrat Jagdeo) of Guyana as integral leaders in Caricom,” Rowley said

The Trinidad and Tobago leader issued a call on sister member states to do what needs to be done to increase agriculture production, while ensuring the full implementation and realisation of the CSME. “I have seen this before, heard it before and don’t want to hear it again. We know what to do, the question is are we prepared to do it?” Dr. Rowley asked.

The three-day Forum and Expo is being held under the theme: “Investing in Vision 25 by 2025” at the Arthur Chung Convention Center (ACCC).