BASSETERRE, St. Kitts - THE Government of St. Kitts and Nevis has resumed talks with its Brazilian counterpart over the full implementation of the triangular Particular Scope Agreement (PSA).
That agreement was signed in 2005 with a view of providing private sector entities with a market for the supply of their goods.
Under the initial agreement, there were some 31 products that were expected to have preferential treatment in the market.
However, the implementation of that agreement has been stalled for many years with various ministers of trade pushing to have it fully operational; but government officials in St. Kitts and Nevis have, over the years indicated that the challenge is on the end of the Brazilians.
New Minister of International Trade Wendy Phipps told SKNVibes News that the discussion has restarted with the list of items being drastically scaled-down.
She explained that the Government of St. Kitts and Nevis delivered on all the requirements necessary for the implementation of the programme.
“Successive governments who would have taken office in Brazil would have had different interpretations or rankings in terms of priorities when it comes to the PSA. For us here in St. Kitts and Nevis, it was about providing our people with a ready market out of South America where you can have access to high-quality goods,” Minister Phipps explained.
She told SKNVibes that based on her understanding of the agreement, there were a total of 33 items that were on the list to be exported to the South American nation, including manufactured goods.
“After a lot of back and forth and negotiations, that list has been reduced to 11 items. We had not been hearing anything out of Brazil in spite of repeated requests for a status update,” she noted.
However, following those requests, a note “basically indicating a willingness to begin discussions once again”.
“The situation still has not changed, but the stalemate that we are at right now is not through lack of effort on our part,” the Minister said.
