O.A.S. trade workshop focuses on tourism

Tourism. It is without a doubt one of the fastest growing industries in Belize. And while prospects for even greater expansion are plentiful, tourism stakeholders both big and small are this week getting some valuable training in trade issues. What does trade have to do with tourism? According to specialist with the Organisation of American States, Paul Fisher, a lot. Fisher is in Belize to facilitate a two-day workshop, which opened on Thursday at the Biltmore Hotel to discuss multilateral and regional trade issues.

Patrick Jones
?When people think of trade and tourism, they see it as two separate entities. Do they overlap and how??

Paul Fisher, O.A.S. Trade Specialist
?They do because I think most people think of trade in the sort of traditional trading products. They think about trade in goods, trade in bananas, trade in sugar, et cetera, but you have something known as trade in services. And tourism service is probably the most important service that we in the Caribbean trade. And so there is a reason why we?ve chosen the tourism sector as one of the first sectors that are getting these, what we call sector specific workshops. And so each time you sell a package, each time you take tourists on a tour guide, each time tourists buy room in a hotel or food in a restaurant, you are trading a service. And so it is very relevant trade in services trade in tourism services.?

Patrick Jones
?Is this something that is new to the Caribbean? Is the Caribbean just finding out that there is a trading in services covered by many of these agreements??

Paul Fisher
?No, this is something that is not new to the Caribbean. But what we are trying to do is make these agreements or these international trade arrangements more relevant to the private sector. In the Caribbean we tend to create policy and implement policy at the public sector level, but what we are trying to do is, we are trying to create a dialogue between the public sector and the private sector. The private sector has to have an understanding of these trade issues and how they affect their business.?

Topics dealt with today included services in the World Tourism Organisation and the Free Trade Area of the Americas. Fisher says on day two, participants will discuss the Caribbean Single Market and Economy.