Caribbean community seeks to eliminate obstacles to rice trade

HAVANA, March 15 (Xinhuanet) -- The Secretariat of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) said on Tuesday that the organization will work out a project to eliminate obstacles hindering rice trade in the region, reports reaching here said.
The trade ministers of the member states, together with rice producers and traders, will hold a meeting at Georgetown, Guyana, at the end of this month to revise the commercial norms for the product, according to the institution.
The participants may encourage more exports of rice from Belize,Guyana and Surinam, three major producers of the grain in the Caribbean, local reports said.
The meeting will also analyze the mechanisms of payment in accordance with the Common External Tariff of CARICOM, which reportedly have been violated by some governments.
The 15-member CARICOM was founded in 1973, replacing the Caribbean Free Trade Association established in 1968.
The bloc groups Antigua and Barbuda, Bahamas, Barbados, Belize,Dominica Grenada, Guyana, Jamaica, Montserrat, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Surinam, Haiti, and Trinidad and Tobago. Enditem