CARICOM launches online market place to trade regional products

GEORGETOWN, Guyana, Sep 26 - The Caribbean Community (CARICOM) Secretary-General Carla Barnett on Monday launched the Secretariat's  major online regional platform to facilitate intra-regional trade in goods and agricultural product.  

This CARICOM Marketplace dubbed CIMSUPRO (CARICOM Market Place and Suspension Procedure) will register suppliers and buyers of Caribbean Community (CARICOM) originating goods.

As we push to increase intra-regional trade and supply of goods, especially food, to replace our high and unsustainable dependence on imports, putting information on the availability of CARICOM inputs to manufacturers, as well as finished goods, is absolutely important, Barnett said.

She mentioned that external shocks stemming from the Covid-19 pandemic, the Russia-Ukraine conflict and climate change have made the importance of building resilience in regional economies even more critical.

Disruptions in global supply chains continue to persist, high oil and food prices continue to push the vulnerable into poverty, and the resulting shortage and high cost of agricultural inputs, such as fertilizers, has made access to these inputs extremely difficult, she added.

Amid these uncertainties, she said, heads of states have redoubled their commitment to the CARICOM Single Market and Economy as the best option for building economic resilience and safeguarding the well-being, earnings and standard of living of the regional peoples. Increased production and trade will lead to the creation of new job openings, generate foreign exchange, increase government’s revenue base and also to help restore fiscal balance, thereby improving our macroeconomic fundamentals.

She said "one area that presents great opportunity for increased regional production and import substitution is agri-food products. Over US$3.7 billion in agri-food products was imported into the Region in 2018. To expand regional production and supply to reduce this import bill, producers and buyers must have access to market information in good time and in a user-friendly manner – the CIMSuPRO will provide this!

"Of course, for the CIMSUPRO to deliver these benefits the portal’s database must be populated with information on products from as many regional producers as possible, and it must attract the buyers who use and distribute products across our Region. The Secretariat’s team will work closely with national trade officials who have been trained in the use of the CIMSUPro and all stakeholders, especially the private sector, to ensure that this important mechanism realizes its full potential and facilitates the expansion of trade in our Single Market,"she said.

In her standpoint, this new online platform is destined to become an important marketing website for CARICOM sourced products within and outside Single Market.

A successful CIMSUPRO could become a model for online solutions in other sectors, especially in services, which is the mainstay of regional economies, she said.

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