Caribbean chambers focus on trade and shipping for growth
Published:Wednesday | March 30, 2022 | 12:08 AM
The Network of Caribbean Chambers of Commerce, CARICHAM, is pointing to shipping woes made worse by the COVID-19 pandemic, as well and inefficiencies in trade arrangements within the Caribbean Community, Caricom, region, and globally, as being among the major stumbling blocks to doing business. Andrew Santey, a trade facilitation adviser and the group’s vice chairman says in many instances there is a disconnect between local laws and global agreements.
He is calling for the exploitation of new and existing possibilities in shipping arrangements and better coordination among customs agencies in the region as ways of fixing the problems. Trans-shipment, he notes, must be ramped up to allow the region to take advantage of emerging trends in global trade.
“There is lot of the bulk goods in large container ships coming bringing goods to us out of Asia. Perhaps there might be opportunities in some of the islands in the Caribbean where we can encourage transshipment from other nearshore ports in the region,” Santey told an online forum held on March 22 to promote business, trade and economic growth in the region.
The CARICHAM-organised forum noted that the Caricom region has been cited in various reports, including that of the United National Commission on Trade and Development and other trade bodies, as having ports that are not operating at their full potential given their proximity to the world’s major shipping lanes.
Islands manager at Florida-based Tropical Shipping, Eldris Pierre Mauricette says the realities of the logistical problems caused by the COVID-19 pandemic recommend that improvements have to be made to regional shipping. Predicting more increases in the cost of shipping to come, Mauricette is also urging the operation of more near-shoring businesses in the region. Regional importers, he said, must look to getting more supplies from companies in the Latin America and Caribbean region as freight rates and other costs from Asian will be at near historic highs for the rest of 2022 into 2023.
Mauricette is also highlighting that Caribbean shipping is being affected by importers holding on to containers for longer period, resulting in the continued shortage of containers which started with the onset of the global COVID-19 pandemic, as well as more lucrative cruise shipping posing scheduling and capacity conflicts for cargo shipping. Mauricette said these problems are affecting small island developing states in particular and will likely remain for some time.
Meanwhile, Santey is urging regional businesses and governments to continue and strengthen systems put in place as responses to the COVID-19 pandemic. Adjustments, such as work-from-home and process improvements, he suggested, need to be made more permanent by the application of appropriate technology.
“Whereas the pandemic has been going on for two years and people have predicted how soon it will end, let us not operate with that in mind. Let us continue to fortify whatever systems were put in place,” Santey cautioned, pointing areas to strengthening needed in administration, and investments required in technology and human resources, for Caribbean businesses to operate more efficiently at lower costs.