By: Delvardo Emmanuel
In an effort to foster strategic partnership for the trading of goods throughout The
Bahamas and the Caribbean region, the Jamaican Manufacturers and Exporters
Association (JMEA), along with The Bahamas Trade Commission, launched its first
ever JMEA trade mission.
The event held at the Access Accelerator, SBDC office on Gladstone Road, was
geared towards bringing together over 30 businesses from Jamaica to The Bahamas
for the exchange of trade secrets as well as business collaborations for future exports.
Deputy chair of the Bahamas Trade Commission, Senator Barry Griffin spoke on the
importance of trade in The Bahamas.
“As leaders from across the region, from our Prime Minister Philip Davis to Mia
Motley of Barbados and Andrew Holness of Jamaica, advocate for greater trade
integration, those of us throughout government and the private sector are taking up
that clarion call to do what is necessary to facilitate this trade and business.
“With the advent of the COVID pandemic, the increasing cost of oil and gas,
transportation, and logistics, we all now see that this must be the way forward for
small vulnerable economies in an uncertain trading environment. We must trade
closer to home and become less reliant on the outside world,” Senator Griffin said.
The JMEA serves as the voice of exporters, manufacturers, service providers, micro,
small and medium enterprises (MSMES). Vital support to members as well as the
industry is provided through advocacy, strategic partnerships, export services,
research, capacity building, and access to finance.
Mission leader and JMEA Treasure Robert Scott describes the partnership with The
Bahamas as a template for what is to come for the rest of the region.
“Growth of the region or prosperity and our wealth will come from trading from each
other.
“Let us recognize that every time we export a primary product to the USA or
elsewhere in the world, wealth is created there, jobs are created there, working on all
material, the value added is there.

“Let us recognize that when we import a product from the U.S. or elsewhere, the
value added has also been put into that country; we’re trading from each other then we
will continue to grow and to build,” said Scott.