Yearwood. Thank you, Mr. Meeks. Thank you for your leadership on Caribbean concerns. I am going to take on 2 problems here mostly, and I will leave my colleagues to address a few of the others. I think one of the crucial problems that the Caribbean More helpful hints has is competitiveness. And I believe to make much better use of U.S.- Caribbean trade arrangements a lot of the competitive problems require to be dealt with - What is internal rate of return in finance. I discussed in my testimony that the IDP they are doing a lot of work on trade facilitation. That is going to be very important to getting the Caribbean more able to kind of have single windows, reduce the costs of transport, and minimize the cost of clearance in moving products.
Concerns such as traveling from one Caribbean island to the other can be more costly than going to Miami and after that going back down. So there are a great deal of issues that the Caribbean requires to Click here for more info tackle in order to become a more competitive location to do service and to trade better. I didn't desire to, however, not take the chance to say something about Haiti. I did live there for 13 years and I do follow what is going on there really closely. And I believe it is exceptionally important that the HOPE expense not simply go to 2020, however go-- there needs to be some sustainability to what is going to be successful the HOPE costs following 2020.
Parliament is unstable to state the least, type of an interim President that might or may not constitutional. I am not a Haitian constitutional specialist, however I have concerns. However at this point in time, what Haiti requires more than anything else once this specific point of political trouble is gotten rid of, Haiti is going to require sustainability and stability to its relationship for trade and investment with the United States. So I believe that is an important concern that the Congress needs to keep its eye on. Thank you. Mr. Meeks. Yes, sir. Mr. Farnsworth. If I might just strengthen what Sally just stated, the issue of competitiveness is genuine and we handle the company neighborhood all the time.
Therefore there has to be in my view a particular attention to financial investment environment problems. Energy belongs to that. It is certainly not the only element. I think we also have to understand unexpected effects. And you have actually done some truly great clearly on the trade agenda, Mr. Meeks. Plainly the TPP is something that Council of the Americas supports. We appreciate your leadership and others of the subcommittee on that. However there are maybe some unexpected effects. And for instance, when the North American Open Market Arrangement was very first passed one of the greatest supporters for something that became referred to as NAFTA Parity was Ambassador Richard Bernal of Jamaica who entered the U.S.
It is a good idea, however we want to make sure that Jamaica and the other Caribbean nations are not adversely impacted by the trade and investment diversion that might go to Mexico as an outcome of NAFTA. I believe that was a really essential 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 brand-new entrants into fabrics, for example, and farming that are extremely competitive in the global environment that will impact nations in the Caribbean Basin.
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taxpayer help to which we support, however again the concern is one of trade and investment diversion. We need to take care that doing the "right thing" with other economies we are not negatively affecting some economies which are already stressed. And so what is the response here? I think the answer is to go back to the initial idea in some method of NAFTA Parity just this is TPP parity, right? If Haiti, for example, is reliant on the fabrics trade with the United States, we I believe require to make certain that whatever we carry out in TPP doesn't needlessly undermine that or doesn't produce troubles in a method that would eliminate some of those benefits that Congress has actually worked so hard over the years to mywfg online develop.
So my point is that if we look at these in a more thorough way, in a manner that where you have a lot of different, combination of various strands, then I believe we will come to a better place. And so as we are taking a look at these problems strategically, I simply very much assistance the manner in which you are putting this in the context of it is not just this concern or that concern or another problem, it is all of these together and how can we progress in an extensive integrated manner in support of the Caribbean, and I think that is what we have to keep foremost in mind.
Bernal. Let me begin by thanking you, Congressman Meeks, for your constant leadership on Caribbean issues. In reaction to the problem that you raise, I believe that the onus is not only on the U.S (How to finance an engagement ring). but is on the Caribbean. We in the Caribbean have to do some things to make it much easier for company to run and to become globally competitive. I stay convinced that if we create the ideal type of environment in between the U.S. and the Caribbean that there is private sector effort on financial investment and there are opportunities, extremely real chances which can happen by combining Caribbean and U.S.