By Antonio Dey | HGP Nightly News|
GEORGETOWN, GUYANA — As shifting global geopolitical rivalries continue to aggressively reshape the landscape of international trade, the World Trade Centre Georgetown (WTCG) on Wednesday hosted a high-level corporate luncheon aimed at fortifying bilateral commercial, investment, and strategic ties between Guyana and the United States.
Convened at the WTCG headquarters in Kingston under the timely theme “Growing Business with the United States,” the executive event brought together members of the diplomatic corps, international trade experts, private sector leaders, and civil society organizations to address emerging structural barriers and commercial opportunities within an increasingly volatile global economy.
Executive Director of the World Trade Centre Georgetown, Wesley Kirton, opened the summit by noting that the current fractured macroeconomic environment presents both acute regulatory risks and immense market opportunities for expanding nations. Kirton emphasized that as Guyana navigates its rapid structural transformation, mastering the complex mechanics of international trade and maintaining ironclad alliances with global trading partners is more vital than ever to sustain non-oil growth.
Adding depth to the institutional friction facing developing exporters, Komal Samaroo, Executive Chairman of the WTCG and Chairman of the Demerara Distillers Limited (DDL) Group, expressed profound concern over the systemic weakening of international trade oversight bodies. Specifically, Samaroo pointed to the ongoing paralysis of the World Trade Organization’s (WTO) dispute settlement mechanism, which he argued leaves developing states vulnerable to arbitrary trade barriers at a time of escalating geopolitical friction.
Samaroo cited India’s punitive import tariffs on foreign spirits—which can exceed a staggering 200% after cumulative local taxes—as a prime example of the protectionist hurdles cutting off developing exporters from massive global consumer bases. To counter this, Samaroo challenged the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) to aggressively look beyond traditional Western blocs.
“I think it is time for CARICOM to pursue trade agreements with other countries, for example, in Asia where the economies are growing at two to three times that of the western economies,” Samaroo stated, emphasizing that regional consolidation is crucial to strengthening collective negotiating power.
The luncheon’s featured speaker, Arun Venkataraman—former U.S. Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Global Markets and former Director General of the U.S. and Foreign Commercial Service—provided a clinical analysis of current American trade policies and their immediate implications for local industries.
Venkataraman detailed how recent U.S. executive mandates have prioritized a dual-track strategy focused on aggressively reshoring domestic manufacturing capabilities while negotiating highly targeted, bilateral trade frameworks designed to bypass foreign government market protections.
Significantly, Venkataraman highlighted a looming regulatory challenge for local exporters, noting a recent U.S. proposal that could raise the overall tariff on imports from Guyana to 12.5% following a forced-labor investigation into secondary supply networks. While the aggregate macroeconomic impact will be buffered by existing exemptions for oil and bauxite, Venkataraman warned that the newly proposed tariff could severely suppress the growth of emerging, non-traditional export sectors such as Guyanese agricultural production. He noted that U.S. imports to Guyana dropped significantly from 28% in 2024 to 17.9% in 2025, a shift largely correlated with the implementation of strict new tariff regimes.
Weaving economic development into the fabric of national sovereignty, prominent aviation executive and private sector leader Captain Gerald Gouveia argued that modern national security can no longer be decoupled from financial resilience.
“The United States remains one of Guyana’s most important economic partners and a leading source of investment, innovation, technology, and entrepreneurship,” Captain Gouveia stated, describing the bilateral bond as an indispensable strategic anchor. Gouveia asserted that strong domestic job creation, robust infrastructure expansion, and predictable, transparent public policies are the true modern bulwarks of border security and institutional stability.
The high-profile assembly concluded with a unified call from diplomats and corporate executives alike to deepen operational transparency, advance regional cross-border infrastructure, and capitalize on Guyana’s historic economic momentum by transforming the nation into a safe, reliable hub for hemispheric commerce.
