A National Trade Policy to be Launched

Tracy Taegar-Panton

Cabinet has approved a national trade policy that will be officially launched in January. While some entrepreneurs have been able to sell their products to the region and elsewhere, many have not been able to access international markets with ease. Minister of State Panton says that when rolled out, the national trade policy will foster better trading opportunities within CARICOM and other foreign markets and ensure that products and services meet international standards.

Tracy Taegar-Panton, Minister of State, Economic Development

“The trade policy has been a long time in coming and it was approved in cabinet last week Tuesday. We have been working on it as a country since 2015 with support of the Commonwealth Secretariat. And the policy is really to look at how we can further Belizean goods and services for export; how we open up new markets. Certainly we are in CARICOM, we are in some countries in Central America, but we have a global marketplace so how we prepare entrepreneurs and our small businesses to create goods and services that are of world standards. And that policy will guide the work of the ministry for the next ten years. It’s really to look at how we reduce the cost of doing business, how we open up new markets, how we support the development of new products and services at standards that are required for the export market; how we provide the kind of financing support for goods and services immediately available for export.”