Legislation to establish a Free Trade Zone in Grenada will be among Bills expected to be tabled when members of the Houses of Representatives meet for their regular monthly session on 29 October 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 during the weekly post cabinet briefing on Tuesday.
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 added.
Steele said that there are similar free trade zone established in other regional territories and it’s working fine for them and also expects the same thing to happen with 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.
Other bills expected to gain parliamentary approval at the session will include the Grenada Tourism Authority and an amendment to the Electronic Crimes Bill.