(CARICOM Secretariat, Turkeyen, Greater Georgetown, Guyana) As the Region continues to identify and implement measures to achieve food security in a time of spiraling cost of living, the Council for Trade and Economic Development (COTED) of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) will meet in a special session next week to deal with agriculture.
The Twenty-Seventh Special Meeting of the COTED (Agriculture) will be convened in Georgetown on 21 May 2008 at Le Meridien Pegasus. A meeting of officials will be held on 19 May 2008. The Twenty-Seventh Special COTED on Agriculture comes a mere two weeks before the Agriculture Investment Forum scheduled from 6-7 June 2008 in Georgetown. The Investment Forum is aimed at promoting the Region’s potential and attracting investment in the Agriculture Sector and is spearheaded by H.E. Bharrat Jagdeo, President of Guyana, who has lead responsibility for agriculture in CARICOM’s quasi-cabinet. The Forum is being held against the background of regional commitment to Strengthening Agriculture for Sustainable Growth and Development in the Caribbean Community, also known as `The Jagdeo Initiative’.
The planning and execution of the Investment Forum, as well as follow-up action from the Agriculture Donor Conference held in Trinidad and Tobago in 2007 will be discussed at the Special COTED Meeting. The status of other elements of the Jagdeo Initiative will also be considered at the Meeting.
Under the broad agenda item `Rising Cost of Living and Food Security’, Ministers with responsibility for Agriculture will benefit from the presentation of an analysis of the current supply situation globally, regionally and nationally, and the actions that were taken and were proposed to deal with the cost of living scenario. Delegates will focus their attention also on Research and Development and Food Availability, a Collaborative Public/Private Sector Approach to the Developing Food Situation and Sanitary and Phyto-Sanitary Measures.
The Meeting will also review the project promoting CARICOM/CARIFORUM Food Security.
The Community, in an initial response to the rising cost of living, had taken a decision earlier this year to reduce the Common External Tariff (CET) on certain items. This step was taken following the Twelfth Special Meeting of the Conference of Heads of Government held in Georgetown last December at which the CET was identified as the most appropriate instrument for an intervention at the Community level to bring relief from the high cost of products. One of the main agenda items of that meeting was Poverty and the Rising Cost of Living. That item has been recurring on the agenda of several other Community meetings.
