And while they were talking about saving at risk youth in the city,
the talk was about trade in the Belmopan area. Belize exports $5 million in
goods to Guatemala annually but we import $140 million in goods from Guatemala.
So there is a trade imbalance and Belize and Guatemala will sign a partial scope
agreement at the end of the month in an attempt to even the scales – particularly
in areas where Belize has a comparative advantage.
Now the agreement was only recently approved by the Guatemalan Congress
but it had been done in Belize from 2006. So the Ministry of Foreign Affairs
and Foreign Trade has been holding public consultations as a sort of refresher
course. Today it was held at the Banana Bank Lodge in Cayo. Orla Kantun Coleman
from the Directorate for Foreign Trade explained why a refresher is needed,
and Trade Ambassador Bert Tucker backed her up.
Orla Kantun Coleman, Directorate for Foreign Trade
“The countries have not entirely completed the internal process, one
little matter is outstanding but we expect that to be completed by November.
When it is completed we would want to have the private sector ready to go in
terms of again reminding them of what the agreement entails, the potential benefits
so that they can start preparing for when the agreement comes into effect which
we are hoping to be at least by the end of December.”
Bert Tucker, Trade Ambassador
“Our neighbours in Central America have large markets. We are supposed
to be able to reap some kind of benefits from the nearness, the closeness to
that market and consequentially the challenge for Belize is to be able to take
this opportunity. If you can argue that we have difficulty taking this then
one can argue we would have greater difficulty taking the markets that are even
further. So in a sense Belize is confronted now. This is a stimulus for us to
get through this. It will mean that we would be able to pursue other markets
even more effectively. This is a chance for us to work it out in our home grown
neighbourhood, this is our neighbourhood.”
Both parties are expected to sign the agreement at the end of the month
and full implementation will take place next year.
And, last night we told you about the loans signed over from the
Inter-American Development Bank to the government of Belize. We told you
it was US$2.5 which was the information provided to us by a Government Information
Officer. But that was only the loan amount for one of the loans – the
land management project. The entire financing is US$22.5 million. US$15 million
will go to a national poverty elimination strategy and another US$5 million
for agriculture improvement.
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