CARICOM, Colombia advance trade talks in Bogotá

Trade negotiators from CARICOM and Colombia have concluded the second round of talks to update the CARICOM-Colombia Trade and Economic and Technical Cooperation Agreement (TECA). The negotiations, held September 9–10, 2025, focused on expanding preferential market access for agricultural and industrial products, as well as addressing institutional issues.

Talks were co-chaired by Cherryl Gordon, Senior Director of Foreign Trade at Jamaica’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade, and Manuel Chacón Peña, Director of Economic Integration at Colombia’s Ministry of Commerce and Tourism. Both sides confirmed procedures for including Haiti and Suriname in the agreement and reported progress on the treatment of priority products. A third round of negotiations is scheduled for November 2025.

Gordon said the goal is to strengthen bilateral trade with Colombia, CARICOM’s third-largest trading partner in Central and South America. “The focus is to consolidate and update the Trade Agreement to become a mechanism to support trade in high-value goods, support export and market diversification, promote the development of regional supply chains, and expand South-South cooperation,” she explained.

Ambassador Wayne McCook, CARICOM Assistant Secretary-General for the Single Market and Trade, underscored the importance of the update. “This is part of the Community’s effort to implement the CARICOM Heads of Government’s mandate to update and consolidate existing bilateral trade agreements as part of the Community’s response to significant changes in the regional and international trade and economic environment,” he said.

The CARICOM delegation, coordinated by the Secretariat’s Barbados-based External Trade Unit, included representatives from Antigua and Barbuda, Barbados, Belize, Haiti, Jamaica, Saint Lucia, and St. Vincent and the Grenadines. Delegates from Dominica, Guyana, St. Kitts and Nevis, Suriname, and Trinidad and Tobago participated virtually, alongside representatives of the Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States Commission and the CARICOM Private Sector Organisation (CPSO).

Colombia’s team was led by Vice Minister of Foreign Trade Luis Felipe Quintero Suárez and included senior officials from trade, commerce, foreign affairs, and agriculture.

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