Access to 450 million consumers in 26 countries and duty free status for
most exports, that's the offer that the European Union is hoping small economies
in the Caribbean like Belize won't refuse. Today at the Biltmore the Ministry
of National Development began a two day seminar on promoting sustainable development
through economic and trade cooperation between Belize and the EU.
It sounds like a mouthful, but over the two days private sector participants
will be given an earful on how to tap into the European market. Hugh O'Brien,
who is the national authorizing officer for EU Projects, says European consumers
want more than just our sugar, banana, and citrus.
Hugh O'Brien, CEO Ministry of National Development
"The European Union's relationship with Belize allows us to export a
whole range of commodities with duty free access and the EU has given us that
developmental window for us to take advantage of it and we have essentially
saddled in and settle for sugar, banana, and citrus. And so there's going to
be a special presentation that will offer the private sector some of these opportunities."
Carlo Pettinato, European Union
"The European Union is the most wide open market in the world. You can
export duty free to the European Union, virtually all your product and we are
the biggest market in the world, we have 450 million consumers who have a very
high purchasing capacity. Of course it is up to the Belizean people, Belizean
private sector to find the opportunities. What we can say is that we are doing
everything to help Belize and also to improve their supply capacity and we have
certain projects under development but in the it is up to the entrepreneurship
of the private sector in Belize to take the opportunities."
Hugh O'Brien,
"I must say one of the commodities that has really taken advantage of
the opportunities offered is shrimp. The Belize Agricultural Health Authority
(BAHA) was certified as the competent authority by the EU in 2002, after about
three years of existence, and shrimp exporters are now taking advantage of that
special window for us to export shrimp. The advantage we have is that when we
export shrimp we have access to 25, 26 countries at one time."
Discussions tomorrow will center on the Contonou Agreement and a new Caribbean-EU
trade agreement currently under negotiation. The EU delegation is headed by
First Secretary Carlos Pettinato.
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