THE CARIBBEAN Community has eventually taken the commendable decision to grant Haiti one-way free trade access to its markets for a period of three years without any reciprocity. Haiti’s request for this trade in goods facility was made back in May as the country was desperately coping with the devastation from last January’s earthquake disaster.
Some may be critical of the almost seven-month delay in the approval of the request that came from last week’s ministerial meeting of COTED (Council for Trade and Economic Development) at the Community Secretariat at Turkeyen.
It should, however, be appreciated, that the bureaucracy in each of the participating member states in the single market arrangements do not function at the same level to achieve the desired unanimity for Haiti to benefit from the one-way free trade in some 42 commodities.
Clearly the worsening of Haiti’s human tragedies with the outbreak of the cholera epidemic in late October would have underscored the need for urgent action by CARICOM for the special access for Haitian exports over three years.
The loss in revenue that would be involved may be comparatively insignificant, depending on the quantity and variety of exports by Haiti to partner states of CARICOM. What really matters is the spirit of cooperation, as people of One Community, in reaching out to help at a time of immense sufferings by the Haitian people.
That spirit has been driving responses by CARICOM in the delivery of emergency and rehabilitation assistance to Haiti since the earthquake disaster. It is also evident in current initiatives to rush doctors and other health personnel as well as medical supplies for treatment of the cholera victims. 
Guyana and Suriname, for instance, are known to have made generous contributions in urgently required medical supplies, while doctors and nurses from some member states have been volunteering scheduled services to help bring relief to the cholera victims.
Meanwhile, the just-concluded two-day COTED meeting in Georgetown has been informed that “a robust consultative mechanism” was now in place to ensure that national and regional stakeholders provided “constructive inputs” to external trade negotiations, particularly in relations for resumed negotiations between CARICOM and Canada for anew trade and economic development agreement.