CARI­COM says it is re­view­ing its trade in­stru­ments “to make them fit for pur­pose” to fa­cil­i­tate in­creased trade, agri­cul­tur­al ex­pan­sion and in­dus­tri­al de­vel­op­ment be­yond 2023. The Com­mu­ni­ty’s main trade in­stru­ments are the Com­mon Ex­ter­nal Tar­iff (CET) and the Rules of Ori­gin.

Mem­ber States and oth­er Re­gion­al stake­hold­ers will en­gage in de­lib­er­a­tions in the Sev­enth Meet­ing of the Sec­toral Work­ing Group to Re­view the CET and in the Ninth Meet­ing to Re­view the Rules of Ori­gin. The Work­ing Groups will meet re­spec­tive­ly on June 22nd and 23rd.

The Work­ing Group on the CET will give fur­ther in-depth con­sid­er­a­tion to the prin­ci­ples un­der­ly­ing the cat­e­gories and lev­els of the CET as well as the rates to be ap­plied. The Work­ing Group on the Rules of Ori­gin will seek to fi­nalise sev­er­al as­pects of the work­ing text of the Rules of Ori­gin regime.