Yearwood. Thank you, Mr. Meeks. Thank you for your management on Caribbean concerns. I am going to deal with 2 concerns here mostly, and I will leave my associates to attend to some of the others. I think among the essential issues that the Caribbean has is competitiveness. And I believe to make much better use of U.S.- Caribbean trade agreements a lot of the competitive concerns need to be dealt with - What is the difference between accounting and finance. I mentioned in my statement that the IDP they are doing a lot of deal with trade assistance. That is going to be important to getting the Caribbean more able to type of have single windows, lower the expenses of transport, and lower the cost of clearance in moving goods.
Concerns such as taking a trip from one Caribbean island to the other can be more pricey than going to Miami and after that returning down. So there are a lot of issues that the Caribbean requires to take on in order to end up being a more competitive location to do service and to trade more effectively. I didn't desire to, however, not seize the day to state something about Haiti. I did live there for 13 years and I do follow what is going on there very carefully. And I think it is very vital that the HOPE bill not just go to 2020, but go-- there needs to be some sustainability to what is going to be successful the HOPE bill following 2020.
Parliament is unstable to say the least, sort of an interim President that may or may not constitutional. I am not a Haitian constitutional expert, however I have concerns. However at this point in time, what Haiti needs more than anything else when this specific juncture of political difficulty is gotten rid of, Haiti is going to require sustainability and stability to its relationship for trade and financial investment with the United States. So I believe that is a crucial issue that the Congress needs to keep its eye on. Thank follow this link you. Mr. Meeks. Yes, sir. Mr. Farnsworth. If I could simply reinforce what Sally just said, the issue of competitiveness is genuine and we deal with the organization community all the time.
Therefore there needs to be in my view a singular attention to financial investment climate concerns. Energy becomes part of that. It is definitely not the only aspect. I believe we likewise have to be mindful of unintentional consequences. And you have done some truly great obviously on the trade program, Mr. Meeks. Clearly the TPP is something that Council of the Americas supports. We value your leadership and others of the subcommittee on that. However there are perhaps some unintended effects. And for instance, when the North American Free Trade Contract was first passed one of the strongest supporters for something that ended up being understood as NAFTA Parity was Ambassador Richard Bernal of Jamaica who entered into the U.S.
It is a great thing, but we desire to make sure that Jamaica and the other Caribbean nations are not adversely what is the timeshare affected by the trade and financial investment diversion that may go to Mexico as a result of NAFTA. I think that was an extremely crucial point then and it is a very important point now. And to the degree that TPP moves forward, and again I hope that it does. I highly support it and we hope that it is a near term problem. Nonetheless, with some new entrants into textiles, for example, and farming that are extremely competitive in the international environment that will impact nations in the Caribbean Basin.
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taxpayer support to which we support, but once again the problem is among trade and financial investment diversion. We have get rid of timeshare for free to take care that doing the "ideal thing" with other economies we are not negatively affecting some economies which are currently worried. Therefore what is the response here? I think the response is to go back to the original idea in some way of NAFTA Parity just this is TPP parity, right? If Haiti, for instance, depends on the textiles trade with the United States, we I think require to make certain that whatever we carry out in TPP doesn't needlessly weaken that or doesn't create troubles in a way that would eliminate some of those benefits that Congress has actually worked so hard throughout the years to develop.
So my point is that if we look at these in a more detailed way, in such a way that where you have a lot of various, integration of various hairs, then I think we will pertain to a much better place. Therefore as we are looking at these issues strategically, I just very much support the method that you are putting this in the context of it is not simply this concern or that issue or another problem, it is all of these together and how can we move forward in a comprehensive integrated way in assistance of the Caribbean, and I think that is what we have to keep primary in mind.
Bernal. Let me begin by thanking you, Congressman Meeks, for your consistent leadership on Caribbean concerns. In reaction to the issue that you raise, I think that the onus is not just on the U.S (What is a future in finance). but is on the Caribbean. We in the Caribbean have to do some things to make it easier for organization to operate and to end up being worldwide competitive. I stay persuaded that if we create the right kind of environment in between the U.S. and the Caribbean that there is personal sector initiative on investment and there are opportunities, very genuine opportunities which can occur by combining Caribbean and U.S.