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PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti, July 21, 2008 - The Caribbean Community (CARICOM) is working to have Haiti begin participating in its Single Market and Economy (CSME) from as early as the beginning of next year.

Director of the CARICOM Representation Office there, Ambassador Earl Huntley, said his office was working with the Haitian authorities to have the country participate in free trade in goods within CARICOM from January 2009.

However, he said, this would require Haitian products to conform to agreed regional standards. Ambassador Huntley said that a recently concluded one-week mission by the CARICOM Regional Organisation for Standards and Quality (CROSQ) set out to assess the possibility of setting up the standards body there. The country is currently not a member of CROSQ.

A statement from CARICOM described the visit as "very successful".

The delegation was led by Executive Director of CROSQ, Dr Vyjayanthi Lopez and included Dr Darius Gabriel, Director of the St Lucia Standards Bureau and Dianne Lalla-Rodrigues of the Antigua and Barbuda Bureau of Standards.

The team said it was very encouraged by what was found in Haiti, with Dr Lopez revealing that Haitian authorities, through the Ministry of Commerce and Industry, had already begun working on a standards organisation.

"In addition, discussions with the private sector had revealed that the business community in Haiti was very excited about the prospect of a standards bureau and were prepared to support the project," the CARICOM statement continued, adding that the delegation was also impressed by the laboratories in Haiti that could be used for testing standards and quality.

According to the delegation, "Haiti has the infrastructure for a Standards Bureau and what is now required is a coordination and acceleration of the process that is already under way towards forming a national standards authority and the enactment of the necessary legislation by the Haitian Parliament."