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Caribbean Basin > Aruba + Barbados + Cayman Islands + Curacao + Dominca + Grenada + Guyana + Saint Kitts and Nevis + Saint Vincent and the Grenadines + Saint Lucia + Trinidad and Tobago

This is a regional report on West Africa that primarily covers Senegal, Burkina Faso, and Mali, but also provides brief overviews in certain sections for Niger, The Gambia, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, and Mauritania.

With international funding to develop and implement biosafety regulatory systems drying up in 2019, Caribbean biosafety regulatory efforts remain in idle mode. The region is seeking further funding from the United Nations Environmental Program/Global...

On May 5, 2022, trade and finance ministers from East African Community (EAC) member countries agreed to raise minimum common external tariffs from 25 to 35 percent on several agricultural products.

Biosafety regulatory efforts in the Caribbean remain stalled, and it is yet to be seen whether countries can regain the will and secure the international financing required to fully implement their National Biosafety Frameworks in a harmonized manner.

In September 2021, the Government of Niger signed the ministerial decree that defines the composition, organization, and function of the National Technical and Scientific Committee on Biosafety (CTSNB).

Eager to put the COVID-19 pandemic behind it, the Caribbean is doing all it can to attract visitors and kick-start its tourism sector in 2021.

Caribbean imports of consumer-oriented products shrunk from $2.3 billion in 2019 to $2.1 billion in 2020 as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, yet Caribbean retail grocery sales grew by an estimated 6 percent during the same period.

After exporting a record-high $1.1 billion in consumer-oriented agricultural products to the Caribbean in 2019, U.S. suppliers saw the COVID-19 pandemic take a toll on Caribbean demand...

The Government of Senegal is reviewing and revising its new biosafety law which may include language for an expedited approval process for certain genetically engineered (GE) products.

The Caribbean tourism industry and the hotel/restaurant food service sector have been significantly impacted in both the near and long-term as a result of COVID-19.

Many Caribbean Community (CARICOM) Member States have undertaken efforts to comply with their obligations under the Cartagena Protocol on Biosafety (CPB) to the Convention on Biological Diversity....