Cabinet gives approval of key agreements including plans for national cohune industry

By Aaron Humes: Cabinet gave its approval this week for Belize to accede to the Madrid Protocol for the international registration of marks administered by the World Intellectual Property Organization and for the implementation of the Madrid Protocol into the domestic legal framework and for the Belize Intellectual Property Office personnel to be trained in the preparation of the full implementation of this Protocol (BELIPO). This will require a review and amendment to the existing Trademark legislation and training of personnel at BELIPO.

Next, Cabinet gave its approval for Amendment to the Customs and Excise Tariff Introduction of Phase 8 of the Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA) Trade Agreement with the European Union (EU) and approved legislation for the implementation of this phase of the EPA which will result in the removal of import duties from goods from EU countries.

Also, the Ministry responsible for New Growth Industries was given the approval to form a working group to facilitate the development of a National Cohune Industry. This working group will comprise stakeholders and representatives from the ministries of Energy, Economic Development, Trade, Local Government, Immigration, Sustainable Development, and New Growth Industries and has been tasked with coordinating and supporting initial investment and incentive requests of the cohune industry.

Finally, in partial fulfillment of its Plan Belize Manifesto promise to make it easy and transparent to conduct business in Belize by eliminating meaningless and excessive bureaucracy and to modernize systems and processes for greater efficiency, Cabinet gave its approval for an addendum to the 2010 Temporary Employment Permit Policy to allow for the processing of applications for temporary employment permits in a more expeditious manner.

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