El Caribe reports that Caribbean Community (Caricom) secretary general Edwin Carrington arrives today with a mission to discuss the start of the Caribbean Free Trade Agreement. Santiago Tejada, in charge of trade negotiations at the Ministry of Foreign Relations, said that Carrington is open to changing the terms of the free trade agreement so that the DR can start free trade with Trinidad & Tobago, Jamaica and Barbados, without having to wait for all other Caricom countries to implement the treaty. Tejada explained that several countries such as Guyana and Suriname are behind in their preparations and to wait for them would hold back the countries that are ready to go ahead. The agreement was signed on 22 August 1998 and was to have started in August 2001.
