Closer relations with the Caribbean

(November 13, 1992).- A new step toward forging closer links with the Caribbean region was taken by CAF with its participation in the Caribbean-Venezuelan business meeting held on Margarita Island (Venezuela) on November 12 and 13.

The meeting brought together 60 business leaders, representatives of chambers of industry, commerce, manufacturing and agriculture, financial institutions and export development organizations, among others.

The purpose of the meeting was to promote closer relations between the business leaders of Venezuela and the Caribbean, inform them of existing finance mechanisms, and promote trade and investment between the two regions.

Venezuela - CAF member country along with Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador and Peru - recently signed a free-trade agreement with the 13-member Caribbean Community.

CAF began a vitally important move to deepen relations with the Caribbean area by granting, September 7 last, a line of credit to Royal Bank of Trinidad and Tobago to finance foreign trade operations between that country and the Andean nations, and third countries provided the exported product contains at least 50% of inputs from CAF member countries.

CAF Vice President & Deputy CEO Pedro Sorensen Mosquera, who participated in the opening ceremony, said a number of commercial transactions have already been negotiated under the agreement: between the NESTLE companies of Ecuador and Trinidad, Hoechst of Venezuela and the Trinidadian company Lever Brothers West Indies, among others.

He added that new lines of credit were planned with two more Caricom members - Barbados and Jamaica - before the end of this year to develop new commercial and investment links between the Andean and Caribbean regions.

Trinidad and Tobago Prime Minister Patrick Manning, who is also head of Caricom, made an official visit to CAF headquarters in Caracas on October 14 last.

On that occasion, the Prime Minister thanked CAF for the work it is doing to promote closer relations between the two regions, especially at private sector level.

The Corporation has prepared detailed up-to-date information on markets, products, customers, availability of transport and distribution channels, and the legal provisions which govern the export trade of the Caribbean countries.

The business leaders showed great interest in the credit mechanisms which CAF offers for foreign trade: the Andean Trade Finance System (SAFICO) and the Letter of Credit Confirmation and Financing Mechanism for Imports from Third Countries (MECOFIN).

The participants agreed that these were versatile and practical instruments which, without doubt, would facilitate commercial transactions and help eliminate the obstacles which usually delay them, such as difficulties in accessing credit.

Finally, the CAF executive said that closer relations with the Caribbean community - together with the entry of Mexico and Chile into CAF capital - was part of the new strategic orientation of CAF, in the sense of making a pragmatic contribution to strengthening economic relations in Latin America and the Caribbean.