Commerce negotiators from CARICOM and Colombia have concluded the second spherical of talks to replace the CARICOM-Colombia Commerce and Financial and Technical Cooperation Settlement (TECA). The negotiations, held September 9–10, 2025, centered on increasing preferential market entry for agricultural and industrial merchandise, in addition to addressing institutional points.
Talks have been co-chaired by Cherryl Gordon, Senior Director of Overseas Commerce at Jamaica’s Ministry of Overseas Affairs and Overseas Commerce, and Manuel Chacón Peña, Director of Financial Integration at Colombia’s Ministry of Commerce and Tourism. Either side confirmed procedures for together with Haiti and Suriname within the settlement and reported progress on the remedy of precedence merchandise. A 3rd spherical of negotiations is scheduled for November 2025.
Gordon stated the purpose is to strengthen bilateral commerce with Colombia, CARICOM’s third-largest buying and selling associate in Central and South America. “The main focus is to consolidate and replace the Commerce Settlement to develop into a mechanism to help commerce in high-value items, help export and market diversification, promote the event of regional provide chains, and increase South-South cooperation,” she defined.
Ambassador Wayne McCook, CARICOM Assistant Secretary-Normal for the Single Market and Commerce, underscored the significance of the replace. “That is a part of the Group’s effort to implement the CARICOM Heads of Authorities’s mandate to replace and consolidate current bilateral commerce agreements as a part of the Group’s response to important modifications within the regional and worldwide commerce and financial setting,” he stated.
The CARICOM delegation, coordinated by the Secretariat’s Barbados-based Exterior Commerce Unit, included representatives from Antigua and Barbuda, Barbados, Belize, Haiti, Jamaica, Saint Lucia, and St. Vincent and the Grenadines. Delegates from Dominica, Guyana, St. Kitts and Nevis, Suriname, and Trinidad and Tobago participated just about, alongside representatives of the Organisation of Jap Caribbean States Fee and the CARICOM Personal Sector Organisation (CPSO).
Colombia’s crew was led by Vice Minister of Overseas Commerce Luis Felipe Quintero Suárez and included senior officers from commerce, commerce, international affairs, and agriculture.
