Earlier today (March 2), JAMPRO and the British High Commission hosted an Export Business Forum at the JAMPRO Auditorium on Trafalgar Road in St Andrew.

The followingis JAMPRO President Shullette Cox’s address:

It is my pleasure to welcome you to the inaugural UK: Jamaica Export Business Forum.

I wish to thank the UK Department for International Trade for inviting the Ministry of Industry, Investment and Commerce as well as JAMPRO to collaborate on this even, which is completely aligned with our refocused mission to grow Jamaican exports.

We are very clear here at JAMPRO and in our Ministry, that as a small island developing states, sustained trade is essential to economic growth.

For almost three years, Jamaica, like the rest of the world, has been grappling with the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on trade, which – over the period – has seen a reduction in Jamaican exports to the UK.

It is against this background that a new chapter for trade relations brought into effect on January 1, 2021, with the CARIFORUM-UK EPA serving as the fundamental mechanism that ensures continuity in the existing preferential trading and investment relations between CARIFORUM states and the UK, guaranteeing uninterrupted market access for other EPA benefits.

For us here at JAMPRO, we see today’s event as an important check point for this arrangement. Exporters will be provided with updates on the implementation of the EPA as well as get a chance to hear about the opportunities for expansion and diversification of exports into the UK. Importantly, they will also have an opportunity to share the experiences under the CARIFORUM-UK Economic Partnership Agreement, including some of the impediments being experienced when exporting goods and services to the UK.

With JAMPRO’s renewed focus on significantly growing exports in the coming years, practical workshops such as this will become more common as we continue to develop and implement strategies to remove the impediments to exports, making it more attractive to our local productive sectors.

With the assistance of our exporters, potential buyers, in-market specialists and trade facilitation institutions, we believe we can take up the challenge that our Minister has given us to positively impact Jamaica’s persistent trade imbalance and position exports as key pillar of Jamaica’s economic growth.

Coming out of today’s discussions, the JAMPRO team stands ready, as always, to connect Jamaican exporters and potential exporters with buyers in the UK, and we look forward to supporting your efforts to grow your business by accessing global markets.

– Shullette Cox is president of JAMPRO