The Minister of Foreign Trade and Foreign Investment, Rodrigo Malmierca Díaz, presented the Second Protocol of the Economic Cooperation Agreement between CARICOM and the Republic of Cuba to Colin Granderson, the assistant general secretary of this regional mechanism.
This document expands the tariff preferences granted by Cuba in 2000 to the Commonwealth of Caribbean Nations, including 340 new Caribbean products with free access to the national market, while granting preferences to 85 of the Cuban side.
The bilateral instrument will consolidate and strengthen economic cooperation relations between member nations and the Caribbean island.
In the morning session, senior officials from the 15 Member States exchanged on the development of bilateral relations the new challenges imposed by the current regional, hemispheric and international context; and on how to advance towards the indispensable and indispensable Latin American and Caribbean unity, bearing in mind that the leaders of the Community will meet in Antigua and Barbuda in December.
The 5th CARICOM-Cuba Ministerial Meeting began this Saturday at 9:30 am (local time, -5 GMT) at the Hotel Habana Libre, chaired by the vice president of the Cuban Council of State, Salvador Valdés Mesa, Foreign Minister Bruno Rodríguez Parrilla and the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Barbados, Senator Maxine McClean, representative of the CARICOM Council of Ministers.