Ambassador Lorne McDonnough (left), undersecretary for trade in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade, makes a point to Dr. André Gordon, president of the Jamaica Exporters Association (JEA), during the JEA's National Export Week forum Trade Power Dialogue yesterday. The forum, dubbed '$$ and Sense of Current Trade Negotiations', was held at the Jamaica Pegasus hotel, New Kingston. - FILE
A SENIOR Jamaican trade official has complained of a general lack of public interest - even sometimes in the private sector - in the country's trade negotiations while there are often claims of the inability of the public to have input in the shaping of negotiating strategy.
But Lorne McDonnough, the under secretary for Trade in the foreign ministry, told exporters this week that their inputs were necessary if negotiators are to be sure that the interests of the country's private sector are being protected in global trade talks.
"We in the Government cannot negotiate effectively unless we know the views of the private sector and, in your case specifically, the views of exporters," McDonnough said an address at a Jamaica Exporters Association forum on current trade negotiations.
"We need to have a clear sense of your interests and concerns. It is sheer nonsense to try and negotiate without the sustained engagement of the private sector at all levels," he said.
McDonnough's remarks came against the background of consistent criticisms of the capacity of Jamaican and regional negotiators to handle complex trade negotiations such as the World Trade Organisation or those between the European Union (EU) and the African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) group of countries for regional Economic Partnership Agreements (EPAs).
In one such broadside last week, the president of the Caribbean Hotel Association (CHA), Berthia Parle, claimed that Caribbean negotiators at the WTO were stuck in the "banana mode" and were ill-equipped to handle trade in services and issues facing the tourism sector. McDonnough said Parle had claimed, apparently in a private discussions, that her comments had in part been misrepresented.
Saying that the foreign ministry has for more than a decade actively pursued consultation with the private sector on trade negotiations, McDonnough insisted on the need for private sector and community stakeholders to have a nuanced grasp of the global trade issues.
"...(It) is the responsibility of our stakeholders to ensure that they have a sense of the negotiations and not just a superficial appreciation, but a deep understanding of the negotiations so that positions can be clearly articulated," he said.
He drew the example of a poorly attended public consultation last week on the EPAs, held by Jamaican foreign ministry and the Caribbean Community's Regional Negotiating Machinery (RNM) to highlight the frustrations often faced by policymakers. That session was to get views of the private sector to help shape the region's negotiating position.
"It was unfortunate that the overall level of participation, especially from private sector stakeholders, was disappointing," McDonnough said.
But the problem was even worse outside the capital, the trade official indicated.
Said McDonnough: "We have just completed a public outreach programme over the last six weeks that took us to the four corners of Jamaica. To our great dismay, however, we have found that in the rural areas the level of participation is also less than desirable."
