Yearwood. Thank you, Mr. Meeks. Thank you for your management on Caribbean problems. I am going to take on 2 concerns here mostly, and I will leave my coworkers to deal with some of the others. I believe one of the essential problems that the Caribbean has is competitiveness. And I Learn more believe to make better use of U.S.- Caribbean trade contracts a lot of the competitive concerns need to be addressed - What is a note in finance. I discussed in my testament that the IDP they are doing a lot of work on trade assistance. That is going to be very important to getting the Caribbean more able to sort of have single windows, lower the expenses of transport, and decrease the cost of clearance in moving items.
Problems such as traveling from one Caribbean island to the other can be more expensive than going to Miami and after that going back down. So there are a great deal of problems that the Caribbean needs to take on in order to end up being a more competitive location to do service and to trade more efficiently. I didn't wish to, nevertheless, not seize the day to state something about Haiti. I did live there for 13 years and I do follow what is going on there very closely. And I believe it is very vital that the HOPE costs not just go to 2020, but go-- there has to be some sustainability to what is going to be successful the HOPE expense following 2020.
Parliament is unstable to Get more information state the least, type of an interim President that might or may not constitutional. I am not a Haitian constitutional specialist, however I have questions. However at this moment in time, what Haiti needs more than anything else as soon as this particular point of political difficulty is gotten rid of, Haiti is going to require sustainability and stability to its relationship for trade and investment with the United States. So I think that is a critical problem that the Congress needs to keep its eye on. Thank you. Mr. Meeks. Yes, sir. Mr. Farnsworth. If I could just strengthen what Sally just said, the concern of competitiveness is real and we handle business community all the time.
And so there has to remain in my view a particular attention to investment climate issues. Energy belongs to that. It is certainly not the only aspect. I think we likewise have to understand unintentional consequences. And you have done some really great clearly on the trade program, Mr. Meeks. Clearly the TPP is something that Council of the Americas supports. We appreciate your leadership and others of the subcommittee on that. However there are perhaps some unintentional effects. And for instance, when the North American Open Market Arrangement was very first passed one of the greatest advocates for something that ended up being known as NAFTA Parity was Ambassador Richard Bernal of Jamaica who entered into the U.S.
It is an excellent thing, but we wish to make certain that Jamaica and the other Caribbean nations are not adversely impacted by the trade and investment diversion that may go to Mexico as an outcome of NAFTA. I think that was an extremely important point then and it is a very essential point now. And to the level that TPP moves forward, and again I hope that it does. I highly support it and we hope that it is a near term concern. Nonetheless, with some brand-new entrants into textiles, for example, and farming that are highly competitive in the global environment that will impact countries in the Caribbean Basin.
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taxpayer help to which we support, but once again the issue is among trade and investment diversion. We need to beware that doing the "best thing" with other economies we are not negatively impacting some economies which are currently stressed. And so what is the response here? I believe the answer is to return to the original idea in some way of NAFTA Parity just this is TPP parity, right? If Haiti, for example, depends on the fabrics trade with the United States, we I believe require to Great post to read make sure that whatever we perform in TPP doesn't needlessly undermine that or does not develop difficulties in such a way that would eliminate a few of those benefits that Congress has actually worked so hard throughout the years to establish.
So my point is that if we take a look at these in a more thorough method, in a way that where you have a lot of various, integration of different hairs, then I think we will concern a much better place. And so as we are looking at these concerns strategically, I just quite assistance the method that you are putting this in the context of it is not just this problem or that problem or another problem, it is all of these together and how can we move forward in a detailed integrated manner in support of the Caribbean, and I think that is what we have to keep foremost in mind.
Bernal. Let me start by thanking you, Congressman Meeks, for your consistent leadership on Caribbean problems. In action to the problem that you raise, I believe that the onus is not only on the U.S (What does ear stand for in finance). but is on the Caribbean. We in the Caribbean have to do some things to make it simpler for company to run and to become worldwide competitive. I stay convinced that if we produce the ideal kind of environment between the U.S. and the Caribbean that there is private sector effort on investment and there are chances, really genuine chances which can take place by combining Caribbean and U.S.
