Gov’t wants to establish free trade zone

Legislation to establish a free trade zone in Grenada was among legislation tabled when members of the Houses of Parliament met for their regular monthly session on October 30, 2013.

International Business and Foreign Affairs Minister, Nickolas Steele, said that the Free Trade Act will allow for the establishment of a Free Trade Zone in Grenada.

“This will be a physical area which allows items to come in without charging duty to be assembled and exported,” Steele told reporters.

He explained that within the Free Trade Zone, companies will for example be assembling goods for export to other countries, which can result in increased employment.

“Customs will be taking strict note of what comes in and what goes out… If anything is to be sold within Grenada and CARICOM, then it will pay the duty,” he warned.

Steele said that there are similar free trade zones established in other regional territories and it’s working fine for them, and he also expects the same thing to happen in Grenada.

“By approving such legislation, we can now go out and market Grenada as a Free Trade Zone,” he said, without naming the areas that are being considered for the free trade zone.