Yearwood. Thank you, Mr. Meeks. Thank you for your leadership on Caribbean issues. I am going to take on 2 problems here primarily, and I will leave my colleagues to attend to some of the others. I think one of the key issues that the Caribbean has is competitiveness. And I believe to make much better usage of U.S.- Caribbean trade contracts a great deal of the competitive issues need to be resolved - What is a finance charge on a credit card. I mentioned in my testament that the IDP they are doing a lot of deal with trade facilitation. That is going to be important to getting the Caribbean more able to kind of have single windows, reduce the costs of transport, and decrease the expense of clearance in moving items.
Issues such as traveling from one Caribbean island to the other can be more pricey than going to Miami and after that returning down. So there are a lot of concerns that the Caribbean requires to tackle in order to become a more competitive location to do organization and to trade better. I didn't wish to, however, not take the chance to state something about Haiti. I did live there for 13 years and I do follow what is going on there really carefully. And I believe it is very critical that the HOPE bill not just go to 2020, however here go-- there has to be some sustainability to what is going to prosper the HOPE costs following 2020.
Parliament is shaky to state the least, sort of an interim President that may or might not constitutional. I am not a Haitian constitutional professional, however I have questions. However at this point in time, what Haiti needs more than anything else as soon as this specific point of political problem is gotten rid of, Haiti is going to need sustainability and stability to its relationship for trade and financial investment with the United States. So I think that is a crucial issue that the Congress needs to keep its eye on. Thank you. Mr. Meeks. Yes, sir. Mr. Farnsworth. If I could simply strengthen Additional hints what Sally just stated, the problem of competitiveness is real and we handle business https://postheaven.net/zardia4br2/and-courses-which-can-help-prospective-candidates-other-financial-documents community all the time.
And so there needs to be in my view a particular attention to investment environment problems. Energy belongs to that. It is certainly not the only element. I think we likewise need to be mindful of unintentional repercussions. And you have actually done some really excellent work clearly on the trade agenda, Mr. Meeks. Plainly the TPP is something that Council of the Americas supports. We value your leadership and others of the subcommittee on that. However there are possibly some unintended effects. And for instance, when the North American Open Market Agreement was first passed among the greatest advocates for something that became called NAFTA Parity was Ambassador Richard Bernal of Jamaica who entered into the U.S.
It is a good idea, but we desire to ensure that Jamaica and the other Caribbean countries are not adversely impacted by the trade and investment diversion that may go to Mexico as an outcome of NAFTA. I believe that was a really essential point then and it is an extremely essential point now. And to the degree that TPP goes forward, and again I hope that it does. I highly support it and we hope that it is a near term problem. Nevertheless, with some brand-new entrants into fabrics, for example, and farming that are highly competitive in the global environment that will affect countries in the Caribbean Basin.
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taxpayer help to which we support, but once again the problem is one of trade and investment diversion. We need to beware that doing the "right thing" with other economies we are not negatively impacting some economies which are already stressed. Therefore what is the answer here? I believe the answer is to return to the initial concept in some way of NAFTA Parity only this is TPP parity, right? If Haiti, for instance, depends on the fabrics trade with the United States, we I believe need to ensure that whatever we perform in TPP does not needlessly undermine that or doesn't create troubles in such a way that would remove some of those advantages that Congress has worked so hard over the years to develop.
So my point is that if we look at these in a more extensive way, in a way that where you have a lot of various, combination of various hairs, then I believe we will come to a better location. And so as we are taking a look at these concerns tactically, I just quite support the manner in which you are putting this in the context of it is not simply this issue or that problem or another problem, it is all of these together and how can we progress in a detailed integrated way in assistance of the Caribbean, and I believe 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 concerns. In reaction to the concern that you raise, I think that the onus is not just on the U.S (How many years can you finance a boat). but is on the Caribbean. We in the Caribbean have to do some things to make it simpler for service to operate and to end up being internationally competitive. I remain convinced that if we produce the ideal type of environment between the U.S. and the Caribbean that there is economic sector initiative on financial investment and there are opportunities, extremely real chances which can take location by combining Caribbean and U.S.