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The event was held to educate Belizean exporters and entrepreneurs on how to penetrate the international market in the face of those crippling custom tariffs. Jamaican Consultant for the CARICOM Single Market Information flows project, Gillian Scott explains how educating exporters on their rights and opportunities in trade will contribute to building the economy.

Tricia Gideon, CARICOM Single Market and Economy Focal Point
"And so it's all about how do we get people to move quickly around the region and feel like one. It's a challenge because of course we all have our own nationalities, we have our own cultural backgrounds, but it's about thinking as one and that's really the objective of this workshop; how do we make movement hassle free? How do we encourage Belizeans to take opportunities in the region and other member states within the region to take these opportunities and feel like we are one big country that has no barriers?"

Gillian Scott, Consultant
"And so todays' workshop is going to enable us to get culturally sensitive strategies that we can pass on and that can be sustained by government and by interest groups to get them nuts and bolts information about the single market into the hands of Belizeans. How do you access the right to travel, work and do business in 12 other Caricom nations? We have recently learn that Belize's exports to Caricom has increased and your revenues have increased. I am sure that the Ministry of Trade has a lot more information on that, but there are many opportunities because you have the right to move your goods freely to other Caricom nations without the application of the customs tariffs, then that creates a level playing field."

One of the main goals of the workshop was to devise a communications strategy to increase awareness of the trade landscape of the CARICOM Single Market.