Organized by the CTO in collaboration with the Ministry of Tourism, Commerce and Consumer Affairs, the workshop also intends to create a mechanism for continuing the dialogue between tourism stakeholders and trade negotiators. Addressing participants, Director-General Ford-Warner said that it is important that those involved in negotiations could speak the language of trade as well as the language of tourism.

"This we hope would enable you to contribute effectively to the formulation of national and regional trade policies and negotiating positions that seek to enhance the competitiveness of the region’s most important industry."

With tourism being a significant economic pillar, Ms Ford-Warner indicated that it was important for the sector to prepare itself to be globally competitive in spite of various challenges. "The tourism industry, by its very nature, is the sector which has been the most open to the international competitive environment, therefore, it is perceived as being the best positioned to withstand the international competition which will be part of the liberalized trade regime.

However, our Governments, within the context of the various trade negotiations, are faced with the challenge of balancing the desire for foreign investment against the imperative to nurture and encourage local tourism businesses."

In declaring the workshop opened, the Minister responsible for tourism, Hon. G. A. Dwyer Astaphan, said the globalization of trade was inevitable, and it was important for everyone to understand the implications of the emerging trade environment for small developing island states such as St. Kitts and Nevis. "It may be a difficult concept to digest, philosophically, emotionally or whatever, because the whole notion of the evaporation of borders, in so far as international trade is concerned, will be something that has potentially traumatic implications for a country, all the more so a tiny country such as ours, but essentially, the concept is not difficult to understand.

The machinery is another matter, and it is necessary that we in these [Caribbean] countries understand them, because although the process is inevitable, much of it or some of it is certainly discussable."

Other contributors to the workshop, held at the Bird Rock Beach Hotel, are the Organization of American States, the Caribbean Regional Negotiating Machinery, the Commonwealth Fund for Technical Cooperation and the Caribbean Hotel Association.