CARICOM Colombia Negotiates Expand South-South Co-Operation

(MENAFN- Caribbean News Global) GEORGETOWN, Guyana – CARICOM and Colombia trade negotiators concluded the second round of negotiations to update the CARICOM-Colombia Trade and Economic and Technical Cooperation Agreement (TECA), in Bogota, Colombia on 10 September 2025. The negotiations, which took place over two days, covered the expansion of preferential market access for agricultural and industrial products as well as institutional issues.

The CARICOM negotiating co-chair, senior director of foreign trade at the ministry of foreign affairs and foreign trade of Jamaica, Cherryl Gordon, and director of economic integration, ministry of commerce and tourism, Colombia, Manuel Chacon Pena, concluded the second-round negotiations with confirmation on the procedures for including Haiti and Suriname in the Agreement, and on progress in the treatment of products of interest to both sides. CARICOM and Colombia agreed to conduct a third round of negotiations in November 2025.

The CARICOM negotiating co-chair emphasised that the aim of the negotiations is to deepen the bilateral trade relationship with CARICOM's third-largest trading partner in Central and South America.

“The focus is to consolidate and update the Trade Agreement to become a mechanism to support trade in high value-good support export and market diversification; promote the development of regional supply chains; and expand South-South Co-operation,” she explained.

Assistant Secretary-General, CARICOM Single Market and Trade, Ambassador Wayne McCook

Assistant Secretary-General, CARICOM Single Market and Trade, Ambassador Wayne McCook who led the CARICOM Secretariat delegation for the negotiations, also highlighted the importance of an updated CARICOM-Colombia trade agreement.

“This is part of the Community's effort to implement the CARICOM heads of government's mandate to update and consolidate existing bilateral trade agreements as part of the Community's response to the significant changes in the regional and international trade and economic environment,” he noted

The CARICOM negotiating team, coordinated by the Barbados-based External Trade Unit of the CARICOM Secretariat, included representatives from Antigua and Barbuda, Barbados, Belize, Haiti, Jamaica, Saint Lucia and St Vincent and the Grenadines, with virtual participation by representatives from Dominica, Guyana, St Kitts and Nevis, Suriname and Trinidad and Tobago, as well as representatives from the Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States Commission and the CARICOM Private Sector Organisation (CPSO).

Vice minister of foreign trade of Colombia H.E. Luis Felipe Qunitero Suarez led Colombia's high-level team of trade, commerce, foreign affairs and agricultural officials in the negotiations.

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