Belize and Trinidad to Strengthen Trade Relations

Francis Fonseca

A trade mission to Belize led by the Minister of Trade and Industry of Trinidad & Tobago held a business seminar this morning in Belize City.  During the meeting, remarks were delivered by Prime Minister John Briceño, as well as Foreign Trade Minister Francis Fonseca.  But what is the strength of Belize’s trade relations with its CARICOM brothers and sisters?  That’s what we asked the Minister of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade earlier today.

Francis Fonseca, Minister of Foreign Affairs/Foreign Trade

“Our trade relations with the entire region, the CARICOM region, is small but growing.  You know, it’s an important market for us, the CARICOM market.  With Trinidad, we export around ninety-seven million dollars.  So it’s not insignificant, but certainly we would want to see it grow and expand.  So we’re very, very thrilled to have this delegation led by the Minister of Trade here in Belize.  As she’s said, they’ve brought in about thirty-four people, some very significant investors in the manufacturing sector, in the agricultural sector in Trinidad.  So I think there’s great potential for us collaborating and great opportunities for economic investments in Belize that I am very excited about and I know our team at the Ministry of Foreign Trade is very excited about.  So after this, I will hold discussions with the minister and we will get into more details about specific areas, particularly agriculture, but also, you know, the whole area of the manufacturing sector.  You all know that we’ve talked about this for a long time in Belize, that we have not been able to develop a manufacturing sector in Belize, canning of goods, canning of fruits.  We talk about these things but I think there is a real opportunity with Trinidad’s help and support that we can achieve this objective.  So we look forward to those discussions.”