Junior Minister for Trade and Economic Development Hon. Shereen Flax-Charles said the Trade Commission, which will be a statutory body, would have roughly seven members.

Hon. Flax-Charles said, “We have to appoint a board, and that has not been done yet. In talks with the Premier today, he did say to me that we have to move on that very quickly so that we can get a board in place and that Board will be made up of seven members from across the various sectors of the business community. We will have sister islands representation on that Board as well.”

The legislator added that while the body will be fully functional in three to five years, “as it relates to getting the Trade Commission up and running in a phased approach, it has to happen this year. I am going to conservatively say in the fourth quarter we should be up and running.”

In the meantime, she said the existing staff at the Department of Trade will be utilized to run the statutory body.

“We have had some consultations with them so that we can transition in a smooth manner. Of course, we have a lot more divisions within the Trade Commission, but we are going to try to keep it very streamlined especially coming out of COVID in terms of the financing. So we intend to remain in that building, and we will have to add additional staff outside of what is there, but as I said before, it’s going to be a phased approach,” she added during an interview on the Honestly Speaking Radio Programme last Thursday.