Caribbean Chambers of Commerce have been taking a recent incisive look at the key factors, not least trade and shipping considerations, linked mainly to the impact of the coronavirus which have been impacting on business efficiency in the region, not least those that have to do with the shipping industry.
A March 30 report in the Jamaica Gleaner reportedly arising out of an assessment undertaken by the Network of Caribbean Chambers of Commerce (CARICHAM) says that shipping woes accentuated by the COVID-19 pandemic along with what it describes as “inefficiencies in trade arrangements within the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) region,” have been prominent among the stumbling blocks to doing business in the region.
The Gleaner Report quotes CARICHAM Vice-Chairman, Andrew Santey, as stating that the shipping-related challenges to doing business in the region have also been accentuated by “a disconnect between local laws and global agreements.” The solution, the CARICHAM official is reported as saying, reposes in the region’s “exploitation of new and existing possibilities in shipping arrangements and better coordination among customs agencies in the region” as ways of fixing the region’s shipping woes. Additionally, Santey is seeking the ramping up of trans-shipping in the region in order to position CARICOM to take advantage of emerging trends in global trade.
“There is a lot of the bulk goods in large container ships bringing goods to us out of Asia. Perhaps there might be opportunities in some of the islands in the Caribbean where we can encourage trans-shipment from other near-shore ports in the region,” Santey is reported to have told a March 22 CARICHAM-organised online forum convened to address the promotion of business, trade and economic growth in the region.
The CARICHAM forum also reportedly drew attention to reports from sources that include the United Nations Commission on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), alluding to ports in CARICOM member countries which, as the Gleaner report puts it, “are not operating at their full potential given their proximity to the world’s major shipping lanes.”
Another perspective of the regional shipping challenges reportedly raised during the on-line forum alluded to what one shipping official reportedly described as “the realities of the logistical problems caused by the COVID-19 pandemic,” which in themselves, “recommend that improvements have to be made to regional shipping.”
Against the backdrop of what is believed to be the likelihood of more increases in the cost of shipping up ahead, the forum also heard a call for “the operation of more near-shoring businesses in the region,” the Gleaner report says. A further recommendation arising out of the on-line forum spoke of the need for regional importers to seek to secure more supplies from companies in the Latin America and Caribbean region in order to counteract what it says is the anticipated likelihood of “historic highs” in Asian freight rates and other costs the rest of 2022 into 2023.
