Yearwood. Thank you, Mr. Meeks. Thank you for your leadership on Caribbean problems. I am going to take on two problems here mainly, and I will leave my coworkers to attend to a few of the others. I think one of the crucial issues that the Caribbean has is competitiveness. And I think to make better use of U.S.- Caribbean trade agreements a great deal of the competitive problems require to be resolved - What is a swap in finance. I pointed out in my testimony that the IDP they are doing a great deal of work on trade assistance. That is going to be essential to getting the Caribbean more able to kind of have single windows, minimize the expenses of transportation, and minimize the cost of clearance in moving goods.
Problems such as traveling from one Caribbean island to the other can be more expensive than going to Miami and then going back down. So there are a lot of issues that the Caribbean needs to tackle in order to end up being a more competitive place to do service and to trade more efficiently. I didn't desire to, however, not take the opportunity to state something about Haiti. I did live there for mytimeshare com 13 years and I do follow what is going on there really closely. And I believe it is incredibly important that the HOPE bill not simply go to 2020, but go-- there has to be some sustainability to what is going to be successful the HOPE costs following 2020.
Parliament is unsteady to state the least, sort of an interim President that might or might not constitutional. I am not a Haitian constitutional professional, but I have questions. However at this point in time, what Haiti needs more than anything else as soon as this specific juncture of political difficulty is overcome, Haiti is going to need sustainability and stability to its relationship for trade and investment with the United States. So I think that is a vital concern that the Congress needs to keep its eye on. Thank you. Mr. Meeks. Yes, sir. Mr. Farnsworth. If I might just reinforce what Sally just stated, the problem of competitiveness is real and we deal with the business neighborhood all the time.
Therefore there needs to remain in my view a particular attention to financial investment climate concerns. Energy becomes part of that. It is definitely not the only aspect. I believe we also have to be mindful of unexpected consequences. And you have done some truly great obviously on the trade agenda, Mr. Meeks. Clearly the TPP is something that Council of the Americas supports. We appreciate your management and others of the subcommittee on that. But there are maybe some unexpected repercussions. And for instance, when the North American Free Trade Agreement was first passed one of the greatest advocates for something that ended up being 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 ensure that Jamaica and the other Caribbean nations are not negatively impacted by the trade and financial investment diversion that may go to Mexico as a result of NAFTA. I think that was a very crucial point then and it is a very essential point now. And to the extent that TPP moves forward, and once again I hope that it does. I highly support it and we hope that it is a near term issue. Nevertheless, with some brand-new entrants into fabrics, for example, and agriculture that are extremely competitive in the worldwide environment that will affect nations in the Caribbean Basin.
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taxpayer support to which we support, but again the problem is one of trade and financial investment diversion. We need to be careful that doing the "right thing" with other economies we are not negatively affecting some economies which are already worried. And so what is the answer here? I believe the answer is to return to the original idea in some way of NAFTA Parity only this is TPP parity, right? If Haiti, for example, depends on the fabrics trade with the United States, we I think require to make certain that whatever we do in TPP does not needlessly weaken that or does not develop difficulties in a manner that would remove some of those advantages that Congress has actually worked so hard throughout the years to develop.
So my point is that if we look at these in a more detailed method, in a way that where you have a great deal of different, combination of different hairs, then I think we will come to a better location. And so as we are looking at these problems tactically, I just quite support the manner in which you are putting this in the context of it is not just this problem or that concern or another problem, it is all of these together and how can we move forward in a comprehensive integrated manner in assistance of the Caribbean, and I believe that is what we need to keep foremost in mind.
Bernal. Let me begin by thanking you, Congressman Meeks, for your consistent management on Caribbean issues. In response to the problem that you raise, I think that the onus is not just wfg rate calculator on the U.S (What do you need to finance a car). but is on the Caribbean. We in the Caribbean need to do some things to make it much easier for organization to operate and to become globally competitive. I stay convinced that if we produce the right kind of environment in between the U.S. and the Caribbean that there is personal sector effort on investment and there are chances, very real chances which can occur by combining how do timeshares work and are they worth it Caribbean and U.S.