Yearwood. Thank you, Mr. Meeks. Thank you for your leadership on Caribbean concerns. I am going to take on two problems here mostly, and I will leave my associates to attend to a few of the others. I believe one of the key problems that the Caribbean has is competitiveness. And I think to make better use of U.S.- Caribbean trade arrangements a great deal of the competitive issues require to be attended to - What is a finance charge on a credit card. I mentioned in my statement that the IDP they are doing a lot of work on trade facilitation. That is going to be essential to getting the Caribbean more able to type of have single windows, minimize the costs of transport, and decrease the expense of clearance in moving goods.
Issues such as traveling from one Caribbean island to the other can be more expensive than going to Miami and then going back down. So there are a lot of issues that the Caribbean needs to deal with in order to end up being a more competitive place to do service and to trade better. I didn't want to, nevertheless, not take the opportunity 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 think it is extremely crucial that the HOPE expense not just go to 2020, but go-- there has to be some sustainability to what is going to succeed the HOPE bill following 2020.
Parliament is unstable to state the least, kind of an interim President that might or may not constitutional. I am not a Haitian constitutional specialist, however I have questions. But at this moment 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 require sustainability and stability to its relationship for trade and investment with the United States. So I think that is an important problem that the Congress needs to keep its eye on. Thank you. Mr. Meeks. Yes, sir. Mr. Farnsworth. If I could simply reinforce what Sally simply said, the concern of competitiveness is genuine and we handle business community all the time.
Therefore there needs to be in my view a singular attention to investment environment problems. Energy becomes part of that. It is certainly not the only element. I believe we likewise have to be mindful of unexpected effects. And you have actually done some actually good work clearly on the trade program, Mr. Meeks. Clearly the TPP is something that Council of the Americas supports. We appreciate your management and others of the subcommittee on that. However there are maybe some unexpected repercussions. And for example, when the North American Free Trade Contract was very first passed one of the strongest advocates for something that became called NAFTA Parity was Ambassador Richard Bernal of Jamaica who entered into the U.S.
It is an excellent thing, but we desire to make certain that Jamaica and the other Caribbean nations are wesleyfinancialgroup not adversely affected by the trade and financial investment diversion that might go to Mexico as an outcome of NAFTA. I believe that was a very crucial point then and it is a very crucial point now. And to the degree that TPP goes forward, and once again I hope that it does. I highly wesley financial group nashville support it and we hope that it is a near term issue. However, with some brand-new entrants into fabrics, for example, and agriculture that are extremely competitive in the global environment that will affect nations in the Caribbean Basin.
The Greatest Guide To What Is A Consumer Finance Account
taxpayer support to which we support, but again the issue is among trade and financial investment diversion. We need to take care that doing the "ideal thing" with other economies we are not adversely impacting some economies which are currently stressed. Therefore what is the response here? I think the answer is to return to the initial concept in some method of NAFTA Parity just this is TPP parity, follow this link right? If Haiti, for instance, is reliant on the textiles trade with the United States, we I believe require to make certain that whatever we do in TPP doesn't unnecessarily weaken that or doesn't develop difficulties in a way that would take away a few of those benefits that Congress has worked so hard for many years to develop.
So my point is that if we take a look at these in a more comprehensive way, in such a way that where you have a lot of different, integration of different hairs, then I believe we will come to a much better place. Therefore as we are taking a look at these concerns strategically, I simply quite assistance the manner in which you are putting this in the context of it is not simply this concern or that issue or another issue, it is all of these together and how can we move on in an extensive integrated way in support of the Caribbean, and I think that is what we have to keep foremost in mind.
Bernal. Let me begin by thanking you, Congressman Meeks, for your constant leadership on Caribbean issues. In reaction to the problem that you raise, I believe that the onus is not just on the U.S (How long can i finance a used car). but is on the Caribbean. We in the Caribbean need to do some things to make it simpler for business to run and to become globally competitive. I stay convinced that if we develop the ideal sort of environment between the U.S. and the Caribbean that there is economic sector initiative on investment and there are opportunities, extremely genuine chances which can happen by combining Caribbean and U.S.