At the 38th session of the Council of Trade and Economic Development (COTED), hich was held in Georgetown (Guyana) from 6 to 10 May 2014. Ambassador Irwin Laroque, the Secretary General of CARICOM emphasized in his opening address on the role of private sector in the economic development of the region "The private sector has a crucial role in the regional economy. We have for long recognized that the full participation of the private sector was necessary to achieve our economic objectives," he said.

For the first time in several years, the private sector in the region was invited to the discussion table and promote his vision. During this session, which brought together 15 members of CARICOM countries, Haiti was represented by Chenet St-Vil, the Coordinator of the Office of Coordination and monitoring of agreements of the CARICOM, of the World Trade Organization (WTO) and the Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA) and Franck Marc Larose, Director of Foreign Trade, at the Ministry of Commerce, have affirmed their commitment to implement from October 2014 the Common External Tariff (CET), a provision of CARICOM, which cancels tariffs between members of the Caribbean Common Market.

According to Mr. St-Vil "the presence of Haiti to the 38th Session of COTED is an opportunity at the regional level but also internationally." Mr. St-Vil took the opportunity to explain to the representatives of different countries of the CARICOM the vision of the Haitian private sector

by praising the merits of public / private partnership in Haiti.

For his part Franck Larose, has been very optimistic "With the implementation of the Common External Tariff, Haiti will not only have a domestic market but a regional market estimated at 18 million inhabitants with a flow of more than 23 million tourists to sell its products."

HL/ HaitiLibre