The International Trade Centre (ITC) has given its commitment to continue working with Jamaica and other CARICOM Countries on trade matters, including the competitiveness of Small and Medium Sized Enterprises.

The promise was made by Executive Director of the ITC, Arancha Gonzalez to Minister of Industry, Commerce Karl Samuda in the margins of the 42nd Regular Meeting of the Council for Trade and Economic Development (COTED) last week.

In her remarks at the meeting, Gonzalez indicated that, from the ITC’s research, the key areas of trade in which SMEs required support were public and private standards, trade facilitation, digital trade and e-commerce, as well as non-tariff barriers.

She says this amounts to between 15-30% of trade costs, of which approximately 50% are imposed within the borders of the home country.

For his part, Minister Samuda, expressed appreciation for the ITC’s support in the development of Jamaica’s Trade Facilitation (TF) Road Map and Project Plan.

He says this provided the framework for the execution of a range of TF reforms that are intended to achieve greater transparency, predictability and efficiency within the business and trading environment, as well as improve the competitiveness of domestic firms in the international market place.

Among the other issues discussed were priority areas that are of mutual interest to both the ITC and the Government of Jamaica such as internationalization and youth and women’s economic empowerment.

The ITC is the joint trade-related technical assistance agency of the United Nations (UN) and the World Trade Organization (WTO), which is dedicated to making small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in developing countries more competitive in global markets.