Guardian ( Trinidad and Tobago )
10 September 2023 ( Page 3 )
Close trade ties
Director of the TTCSI, Angela Lee Loy also spoke at the TTCSI’s webinar,
said Canada and T&T share a special relationship under Caribcan which
was recently renewed for another 10 years. This allows exporters to benefit
from duty-free access to Canadian markets, with T&T’s exports totalling
almost TT$1 billion in 2022.
She added that in 2022, bilateral trade was valued at some total US$613
million, making up roughly half in exports and half in imports.
According to the United Nations Comtrade database on international trade
last year, Canada imported from T&T roughly US$105 million worth of
organic chemicals, US$70 million in fertilisers and almost US$47 million
Director of the TTCSI, Angela Lee Loy
in mineral fuels, oils, distillation products.
She also gave trade-in-services data for both countries and said a World
Bank report notes that in 2022, Canada’s services sector made up 12 per
cent of its overall GDP.
It also noted that T&T’s services sector contributed to 10 per cent of GDP in
2021.
“And a recent IDB report credits the non-energy sector— particularly the
services sector—with this country’s recent economic turnaround. Indeed,
the IDB says the services sector grew at dynamic rates through most of
2022 and pointed to the unemployment rate dropping to pre-pandemic
levels, and a strong recovery in commercial banks’ lending to the private
sector.”
She added that when it comes to services that Canada exported to T&T, the
Observatory of Economic Complexity (OEC) database reports that in 2020,
Canada exported services to T&T worth US$42.5 million comprised of
travel services, financial services and royalties and license fees.
“The OEC database notes that in 2021, T&T did not export any services to
Canada. However, we at TTCSI intend to change that. This webinar series
aims to help those SMEs operating in services industries in T&T. One
important step we’ve taken to support our SMEs is to create a National
Services Exporters Portal (NSEP). This Portal makes it possible for T&T’s
services sector firms to be seen by and make connections with services
sector firms in other countries.”
Photo: Director of the TTCSI, Angela Lee Loy