BRIDGETOWN, Barbados, Tuesday October 15, 2019 – The recently held CARIFORUM-EU Business Forum drew record numbers of senior level European and Caribbean policy makers, European buyers and Caribbean exhibitors, to the fourth hosting of the event and the first ever to be held in Frankfurt, Germany. 

And three Memorandums of Understanding (MOUs) were signed between the Caribbean Export Development Agency and key stakeholders in Europe – the BVMW (Der Bundesverband mittelständische Wirtschaft), the GIZ (Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit GmbH) and the Caribbean Council, to ensure continued success of the strategic sectors and collaboration between the two regions.

“The CARIFORUM-EU Business Forum was designed as a platform to do exactly this – to strengthen business networks and foster a closer trade and investment relationship between the Caribbean and in this case Europe,” said Anthony Bradshaw, Officer in Charge at Caribbean Export which hosted the forum in collaboration with the European Union and GIZ.

Minister of Trade and CARICOM Affairs from Grenada, Oliver Joseph thanked the Caribbean’s partners, the European Commission and GIZ as well as the new partners with whom MOUs were signed, for supporting the Caribbean in its use of the CARIFORUM-EU EPA.

“We need to take full advantage of this agreement.  We must also realize that as a region, as small developing economies, we cannot do it alone. And so I want to thank our partners in Europe, the European Commission, the GIZ, our new friends in Germany, the LAV and the BVMW, the Caribbean Council from the UK… you are helping us and will be helping us to make the EPA work for the peoples of the Caribbean,” he said.