Basseterre, St. Kitts - The regional arm of the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association (CPA) will gather in St Kitts on November 25-26, 2010, for a seminar on Trade Issues.  St Kitts and Nevis will play host to the CPA’s event originally intended for St Lucia.  St Lucia was unable to host the event on account of damages suffered by Hurricane Tomas.

Senior Minister, Dr the Hon Timothy Harris and Minister of International Trade, Industry, Commerce, Consumer Affairs, Agriculture, Marine Resources, Cooperatives and Constituency Empowerment says he welcomes the opportunity provided by the seminar for regional Parliamentarians to learn more about key issues on the international trade agenda, and to foster a greater understanding of, and interest in, the multilateral trading system.  We are integrated in the globalized trading system.

  We are members of the WTO, signatories to the EU Partnership Agreement and we are discussing free trade arrangements with Canada and Brazil.  All these will fundamentally impact on our people as consumers and producers, our competitiveness, our balance of trade, our fiscal account and for matters of such far reaching significance it seems to be in the self interest of Parliamentarians to hone the best understanding of trade issues that they can”, Senior Minister Harris said.

Dr Harris continued “this seminar serves as a reminder to Parliamentarians, of that duty to inform themselves.  It also raises another matter from an accountability perspective, whether such fundamental trade agreements ought not, first be debated in the Parliaments Caribbean jurisdictions.  Parliament’s involvement is a critical part of the processes that lead to trade agreements in the USA, Canada, and the EU.  We can certainly emulate this”.

Dr Harris outlined that topics to be covered include:

1. The role of the modern day Parliament in the management and oversight of Trade Policy;
2. Structure, principles and functioning of the international trading system;
3. Regional Trading arrangements;
4.  Mainstreaming gender in Trade Policy, Trade Employment, and Climate Change;
5. Contribution of the Private Sector in policy formulation and implementation