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Technical issues in positioning the Caribbean sub-region in the Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA) |
C. L. A. GORDON, Technological Solutions Ltd., 7 1/2 Retirement Rd., Kingston 5, Jamaica Americans are now seeing the Caribbean region as a source of good music and exciting new foods. With more than 40 million people, including stopover visitors and transient tourists, the region is also a major and expanding market for food and beverage products. The advent of the Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA) in 2005 will bring the opportunity to market unique Caribbean food products more easily within a much larger market in return for easier access for food from FTAA states such as Brazil, Chile, Mexico and the United States. This will present opportunities and challenges for the Caribbean food industry, its governments and its regional organizations such as CARICOM. This paper will examine the issues and opportunities for food scientists and IFT in the Caribbean under the FTAA. Technical issues requiring firm-level action include assuring food safety through Hazard Analysis Critical Control Points (HACCP), Good Agricultural Practices (GAP) and complying with mandatory residues levels, environmental management and plant layout and design standards. Firms will have to meet requirements product registration in various markets and constantly innovate through new product development to attain and maintain competitiveness. Basic research will be needed as companies seek to get “traditional” regional products into new markets. Governments and regulatory agencies will have to deal with regulation and monitoring of food safety systems while ensuring reciprocity in conformity assessment procedures. They will have to develop effective mechanisms to address Technical Barriers to Trade (TBT) and Sanitary and Phytosanitary (SPS) issues and seek to establish Mutual Recognition Agreements (MRAs) with all trading partners to facilitate free trade. In this regard, a carefully crafted approach will be required from firms, organization and governments to the many challenging technical issues that will determine whether the FTAA brings the benefits envisaged.
Session 4, Critical issues in the Caribbean food industry
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