Haiti to participate in CSME

By Melissa Bryant
Reporter~SKNVibes.com

~~Adz:Right~~PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti – HAITI is expected to participate in at least one component of the Caribbean Single Market and Economy (CSME) by the first quarter of 2009.

According to Caribbean Net News, Haiti’s participation in the CSME would increase the size of CARICOM’s market under the CSME to an unprecedented 15 million people.

Director of the CARICOM Representation Office in Haiti Ambassador Earl Stephen Huntley stated on Monday (Dec. 8) that Haiti is in the process of revising and developing legislative frameworks to facilitate its participation in Free Trade in Goods under the CSME.

Huntley noted that by January 2009 bureau of standards would be established in Haiti as the country prepares to participate in its first segment on the CSME. He also pointed to Haiti’s hosting of the CARICOM Commission on Youth Development as a symbol of the country’s growing involvement and active participation in the regional body.

Huntley revealed that a comprehensive plan was being implemented by the CARICOM Secretariat in partnership with the Canadian Inter-Development Agency (CIDA) to support Haiti’s development, re-integration in the Community and full participation in the CSME.

As part of this programme, the CARICOM Secretariat is also conducting training in several aspects of Haiti’s public sector to strengthen the country’s ability to participate fully in the CSME.

The Haitian CARICOM Office will spearhead the implementation of a public education programme that will help Haitians to gain a clearer view of the regional grouping, and which will also allow other CARICOM member states to understand the reality of Haiti.

“We are one and must work together to build the ties of brotherhood between Haiti and the rest of the region…ties that history had severed,” Huntley asserted.