The CARI­COM Pri­vate Sec­tor Or­gan­i­sa­tion (CP­SO) says it wel­comes the de­ci­sion of the Unit­ed States to re­move tar­iffs on key Caribbean Com­mu­ni­ty (CARI­COM) ex­port sec­tors, say­ing it will bring “im­por­tant re­lief” to re­gion­al in­dus­tries that had been neg­a­tive­ly af­fect­ed by the rec­i­p­ro­cal tar­iffs im­ple­ment­ed ear­li­er this year.

Pres­i­dent Don­ald Trump had first im­ple­ment­ed the tar­iffs in April and up­dat­ed the mea­sure in Au­gust.

“This de­ci­sion is both time­ly and con­se­quen­tial. It re­in­forces the com­pet­i­tive­ness of Trinidad and To­ba­go’s ex­ports in the chem­i­cals sec­tor, which in­cludes fer­tilis­ers and re­lat­ed down­stream prod­ucts,” said CP­SO chief ex­ec­u­tive of­fi­cer, Dr. Patrick An­toine.