Trade in services for economic diversification: Opportunities and challenges for the Caribbean Community region

Jan Yves Remy is the Director of the Shridath Ramphal Centre for International Trade Law, Policy and Services (the SRC), the premier trade institution of the University of the West Indies Cave Hill Campus, Barbados, dedicated to training, research and outreach on issues of regional and international trade.

Her areas of research include international and regional trade dispute settlement regimes, climate change and trade, trade and sustainability, WTO reform, trade and gender issues, e-commerce, regional integration and investment policy, in particular, how they affect small island developing states including those in the Caribbean.

She holds the position of WTO Chair at the University of the West Indies (Barbados), under the WTO's Chair Programme; has served as a panelist in WTO trade disputes; and has been included on the panel roster to serve as arbitrator and/or Chair on a number of mechanisms under European and UK FTAs.

Rebeca Grynspan, of Costa Rica, became UNCTAD's eighth Secretary-General on 13 September 2021 and is the first woman to lead the organization.

Prior to her UNCTAD appointment, she was the Ibero-American secretary-general from 2014 to 2021, also the first woman to head the organization. During her mandate, she has coordinated the 22-member Iberoamerican Conference and led four key summits of Heads of State and Government. 

In 2010 she was appointed Under-Secretary-General of the United Nations and Associate Administrator of the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) and prior to that was UNDP Regional Director for Latin America and the Caribbean.  

Prior to joining the United Nations, Ms. Grynspan served as Vice-President of Costa Rica from 1994 to 1998. She was also Minister of Housing, Minister Coordinator of Economic and Social Affairs, and Deputy Minister of Finance. In 2021 she was named Special International Advisor to the newly created Economic and Social Council of Argentina and invited to join as member of the G20 High-Level Independent Panel on Financing the Global Commons for Pandemic Preparedness and Response.

In addition to her experience as a lecturer and advisor to several international organizations, she has been actively involved in key United Nations initiatives, such as the Millennium Project's Task Force on Poverty and Economic Development and the High-level Panel on Financing for Development.  

In 2014 and 2015, she was recognized as one of the 50 leading intellectuals of Latin America.  And she was recognized as one of the 100 most powerful women in Central America by Forbes magazine.

Ms Grynspan holds a degree in Economics by the University of Costa Rica and a MSc in Economics by the University of Sussex. She has been awarded a Doctorate Honoris Causa by the University of Salamanca, the University of Extremadura and the European University of Madrid in recognition of her outstanding professional achievements. 

Chad Blackman, Barbadian politician and former diplomat, was appointed to the Senate of Barbados by the Prime Minister of Barbados Mia Amor Mottley, as well as Minister in the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Investment.

He served as the Senior Advisor to the Director-General of the ILO, and as Ambassador and Permanent Representative of Barbados to the United Nations and Other International Organizations in Geneva, Vienna, and Rome, and Barbados’ Ambassador to Austria, Hungary, and Serbia

He was the President of the G77 and China Group in Geneva. He is the former Chair for the Trade and Environment Committee and former Chair of the Trade and Development Committee, both in the WTO. He chaired the SIDS Group at UNCTAD, was the Americas Co-ordinator for the Government Group in the ILO, and is a UN International Gender Champion Global Board Member.

Mr. Blackman holds a Law degree and a Master’s in International Trade Law from the University of Essex.

Chantal Ononaiwu is the Director, External Trade in the CARICOM Secretariat’s Directorate of the CARICOM Single Market and Trade, based in Barbados, where she leads the Directorate’s work pertaining to external trade negotiations and external trade policy.

She has served as a senior adviser to the Community on matters pertaining to international trade and investment, a negotiator for CARICOM in its external trade negotiations and has represented the Community in cases before the Caribbean Court of Justice. Ms. Ononaiwu has also served as a panelist in a WTO dispute. She lectures International Trade and Investment Law at the University of the West Indies.

Ms. Ononaiwu is admitted to practise law in Jamaica and Barbados. She holds a DPhil in Law from the University of Oxford, an L.L.M. from the University of Cambridge, and an L.L.B. from the University of the West Indies.

Ricardo James, Head of the Trade Policy Development within the Division of Economic Affairs and Regional Integration of the OECS Commission, is responsible for providing leadership, advice, analysis and reporting to the Commission and Member States in the coordinating and harmonisation of the formulation, development and implementation of trade policy.

Previously, Mr. James was a Senior Technical Specialist for Business Environment and Export Development at the Commission’s Competitive Business Unit (CBU), where he was responsible for strengthening the policy, legislative and regulatory frameworks for MSME competitiveness trade and exports in the OECS.

He was also Head of the Permanent Delegation of the OECS in Geneva as Chargé d'Affaires responsible for advancing the interests of the OECS in the multilateral trading system at the World Trade Organisation (WTO). He served as lead technical spokesperson for the African Caribbean Pacific (ACP) Group of Countries in the negotiations on trade facilitation and fisheries subsidies rules.

Sheldon L.A. Mc Lean is the Coordinator of the Economic Development Unit at the United Nations Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (UN ECLAC), based at the Sub-Regional Headquarters in Port-of-Spain which has responsibility for 25 Caribbean countries.

Mr. Mc Lean has previously served as Regional Trade Policy Advisor at the Caribbean Community Secretariat. He has over 20 years of experience in the areas of trade and trade-related development policies; structural transformation and economic diversification.

He has authored numerous research papers on current and emerging trade and development issues for small economies, including de-risking, regional integration, public debt, tourism diversification and climate finance.

Mr. Mc Lean is a graduate of the University of the West Indies, St. Augustine Campus, having earned both a BSc. Agricultural Economics and MSc. Agricultural Economics, specializing in Policy Development, from that institution.