Commerce Department
Support to the Ministry of Foreign Trade & International Co-operation (MOFTIC)

 

Bilateral and Regional Trade and Investment Agreements See the website of the Ministry of Foreign Trade & International Cooperation for Bilateral Agreements with the United Kingdom, China, Cuba, Germany and Venezuela; and for Regional (CARICOM) Agreements with Colombia, Cuba, Dominican Republic and Venezuela.

Approximately half of the work of the Department relates to trade issues. The Commerce Department is responsible for the domestic aspect of non-agricultural international trade, with the Ministry of Foreign Trade and International Cooperation (MOFTIC) being responsible for the creation of policy and the actual negotiation of agreements. International Trade Agreements may be found on the MOFTIC website.

The Commerce Department carries out the analysis of the impact on the domestic non-agricultural economy of proposed trade agreements, including bilateral agreements negotiated by CARICOM as well as multilateral negotiations such as the WTO, FTAA, and the Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA) negotiations with the European Union.

The Ministry of Tourism, Industry and Commerce (through Commerce Department) is the lead Ministry on the Technical Working Group on E-Commerce of the National Trade Negotiation Committee (N-TNC), and as such addresses all e-commerce issues as they pertain to international trade negotiations. The Commerce Department is also the lead agency for Competition Policy, and Subsidies & Anti-dumping.

 

CET Suspension requests

The Commerce Department addresses requests by CARICOM member countries for the suspension of the Common External Tariffs (CET) on commodities. The Department liaises with firms to determine their ability to supply and co-ordinates a response with the Ministry of Foreign Trade and International Co-operation.