{"id":30791,"date":"2026-07-09T19:56:28","date_gmt":"2026-07-09T23:56:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ncnguyana.com\/2023\/?p=30791"},"modified":"2026-07-09T19:56:28","modified_gmt":"2026-07-09T23:56:28","slug":"caricom-advances-regional-ferry-plan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ncnguyana.com\/2023\/caricom-advances-regional-ferry-plan\/","title":{"rendered":"CARICOM advances regional ferry plan"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"fb-root\"><\/div>\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">-to bring down the cost of living<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Caribbean leaders have agreed on a series of measures aimed at easing the rising cost\u00a0of living across the region.\u00a0The issue dominated discussions at the 51st CARICOM Heads of Government meeting in\u00a0St. Lucia as leaders looked at ways to reduce the burden on citizens.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Guyana has been pushing for the region to feed itself and reduce imported inflation\u00a0that contributes to the rising cost of living.\u00a0The Guyanese solution lies in growing more food and expanding intraregional trade, which\u00a0requires more cost-effective transportation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">At this 51st meeting of the Heads, it has now been agreed that while the private sector\u00a0takes steps to procure the vessels for a regional ferry service, the governments will\u00a0utilize one of Trinidad&#8217;s vessels as proof of concept.\u00a0This process is being spearheaded by Barbados Prime Minister Mia Mottley.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>&#8220;I&#8217;ve undertaken the responsibility of working with colleagues to be able to get the\u00a0treaty arrangements for mutual recognition of licenses, insurance, so that vehicles,\u00a0cargo vehicles can literally go on and come off where possible.This is a work in progress,&#8221; <\/strong>she said. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In the meantime, the heads have also agreed to strengthen regional cooperation to protect\u00a0consumers and improve affordability.\u00a0Also, the CARICOM Council for Trade and Economic Development (COTED) has been tasked\u00a0with adjusting the Common External Tariffs (CET) on basic food items to further reduce\u00a0the cost of goods.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The CET was put in place to protect regional production and can be used as a tool to\u00a0bring down the cost of goods, including food items traded among member countries.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Chairman of CARICOM and Prime Minister of St.\u00a0Lucia Philip J.\u00a0Pierre said the community remains focused on addressing the issue that matters most to\u00a0the Caribbean people at this time, the rising cost of living.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>&#8220;Our discussions over the past four days were guided by one central objective: ensuring\u00a0that CARICOM delivers results that people can see and feel in their everyday lives,&#8221; <\/strong>he said. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>-to bring down the cost of living Caribbean leaders have agreed on a series of measures aimed at easing the rising cost\u00a0of living across the region.\u00a0The issue dominated discussions at&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":30792,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[361,350],"tags":[488,1131,715,370,412,405],"class_list":["post-30791","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business-and-economy","category-news","tag-488","tag-51st-caricom-heads-of-government-meeting","tag-caricom","tag-guyana","tag-ncn-guyana","tag-ncn-news"],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ncnguyana.com\/2023\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30791","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ncnguyana.com\/2023\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ncnguyana.com\/2023\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ncnguyana.com\/2023\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ncnguyana.com\/2023\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=30791"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/ncnguyana.com\/2023\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30791\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":30793,"href":"https:\/\/ncnguyana.com\/2023\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30791\/revisions\/30793"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ncnguyana.com\/2023\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/30792"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ncnguyana.com\/2023\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=30791"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ncnguyana.com\/2023\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=30791"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ncnguyana.com\/2023\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=30791"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}