Trade seminar cancelled

COMMERCE and Industry Minister Charles Abel on Wednesday cancelled a trade policy consultative workshop scheduled to take place at the National Research Institute because a cabinet submission on the matter was not ready.
All stakeholders arrived at the conference venue by 10am and waited until lunch-time only to be told that the meeting had been cancelled by Mr Abel.
The workshop was to be hosted by the trade division of the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, which reported to Abel.
The purpose of the aborted workshop was to gauge stakeholders’ views and discuss the draft chapters of the national trade policy framework and specific issues relating to the economic development of the country.
The main objective was to formulate an umbrella trade policy to encompass all other sectors whose policies operated in isolation of each other.
Examples included the agriculture, fisheries, and forestry sectors and others which engaged in trade deals such as imports-exports using their own policies.
Abel said the decision to postpone the consultation workshop to a later date was to ensure that a submission to the National Executive Council regarding the trade policy was given priority.
He said steps should be followed and the policy was made properly, with guidelines that focus on trade.
Abel said the trade division was a neglected division within the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade and the Department of Commerce and Industry and needed to be given the recognition it deserved.
He said the postponement of the workshop was unfortunate and apologised to the stakeholders’ for the inconvenience but assured them that the consultation should happen as soon as possible