RAMESH CHAITOO

GETTING SERVICE INDUSTRY INTERESTS on the agenda of regional governments and articulating those interests to trade negotiators are issues that regional service coalitions must be prepared to tackle.

This message was sent by Ramesh Chaitoo, services trade specialist with the Caribbean Regional Negotiating Machinery, when he addressed regional government officials and private sector associations on the first day of a workshop on Organising The Service Sector Stakeholders To Meet the Challenges Of Development And Trade Liberalisation, last Tuesday.

Chaitoo told the gathering at the Almond Beach Village in St Peter it was time for this region to "get real" when it came to services sector development.

He pointed out that even though the export of Caribbean services far outpaced the Caribbean's goods exports, trade in services was still not being placed high enough on the agenda of officials.

The trade specialist added that even at the level of CARICOM it was very difficult to get discussions on services on the agenda of the Council for Trade and Economic Development (COTED) meetings.

However, Chaitoo noted that the bulk of CARICOM's export in services was tourism which, he said candidly, was "low value".

He called on participants at the Barbados Coalition of Service Industries-organised workshop to use services coalitions to diversify the services we offered to the rest of the world, especially into the areas of culture and entertainment.

Chaitoo added that it was up to services coalitions to advocate their interests so that bilateral and multilateral trade agreements entered into by regional officials would not erode private sector benefits. (CH)