American Chamber of Commerce coming to the Eastern Caribbean

Barbados and the Eastern Caribbean will soon join the worldwide family of countries with American Chambers of Commerce (AmCham).{{more}}

This announcement was made recently at a business reception where new U.S. Ambassador to Barbados Larry L. Palmer met with members of the American business community in Barbados.

Ambassador Palmer urged the assembled businessmen and businesswomen to participate in the “very exciting development”, which will see a shared chamber for seven Eastern Caribbean countries, adding to the 115 AmChams currently in existence in 102 countries around the globe. Antigua and Barbuda, Barbados, Dominica, Grenada, St Kitts and Nevis, St Lucia and St Vincent and the Grenadines will make up the new chamber.

“The American Chamber of Commerce is coming to you soon – and we want to be a part of it,” declared Ambassador Palmer, underscoring the Embassy’s commitment “to further support and strengthen the U.S.-Barbados economic relationship” and the role the AmCham can play.

“We need to take our partnership between business and government to the next level, and I think, no, I know, the American Chamber of Commerce can help,” stated Ambassador Palmer.

American Chambers of Commerce are voluntary associations of American companies and individuals doing business in a particular country, as well as firms and individuals of that country who operate in the United States. AmChams work to promote trade and investment between the United States and the particular country or countries where they are based.

Leading the initiative is American-Vincentian international business law specialist Dustin Delany of the Barbados-based law firm Delany Finisterre. At the reception, Delany noted the presence of AmChams in several other Caribbean territories, including the Dominican Republic, Haiti, Jamaica and Trinidad and Tobago.

It is part of the Economic Statecraft agenda launched by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton last year, in recognition of the fact that the United States’ global leadership rests on a foundation of economic prosperity and cooperation.

“Our foreign and economic relations remain indivisible,” asserted Secretary Clinton to the Economic Club of New York, when she launched the agenda in New York City in October 2011.

Ambassador Palmer echoed these sentiments, emphasizing the pivotal role that the American Chamber of Commerce is expected to play in the Embassy in Bridgetown’s economic statecraft efforts.

“We can and must do much more in the coming years to advance this economic statecraft agenda, and we need the business community to be our full partner. We want to have the American Chamber be our focus. We need to sit down together more, brainstorm, plan, coordinate, and work together to promote American business,” said Ambassador Palmer.