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DSR 11
A
In Confidence THS TRADE DEVELOPMENT AGENCY IN THE CARIBBEAN
1.
In his capacity as Acting Chairman of the Select
Committee on Overseas Development, Sir B Braine has pressed the Committee's suggestion that a Trade Development Agency
should be set up in the Caribbean. Its function would be to
increase British exports into the Caribbean and Caribbean
imports into Britain. It would be funded by HMG, the CARICOM
Governments and UK and Caribbean industry and would replace
our existing commercial representation in the area. The
Committee felt quite strongly that, if aid administration
could be centralised in the Caribbean Development Division,
there was no reason why trade representation should not be
similarly centralised, with the additional advantage that the
new agency would deal with trade in both directions.
2. In her reply to the Select Committee's various
recommendations the Minister for Overseas Development queried
the practicability of this proposal. Not only had there not
been any such proposal from the CARICOM Governments themselves,
but also it might be seen both as cutting across their own
autonomous economic policies. The Committee's suggestion to
staff such an agency with members of HM Diplomatic Service
would be unacceptable in principle since they could not be
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