Ten (10) years ago, on April 23rd, I launched my own company as Andrea M. Ewart, P.C.. My focus then was to serve small and medium-sized importers and exporters through my legal skills; and governments in the Caribbean as a customs and trade attorney/consultant. Today, as DevelopTradeLaw, LLC, the company serves the same market, using the lens of the insights and experiences gained over the last ten (10) years to shape the company’s future. We are especially interested in developing Partnerships with individuals and organizations that are working to address similar challenges.
Through our work with various trade associations and business support organizations (BSOs), we’ve become pretty good at conveying the complex jargon of international trade rules in language and terms that explain why businesses should care and what it means for their bottom line. My articles for the Latin American Law & Business Report and newspaper series for the Jamaica Chamber of Commerce; and presentations on market access opportunities to several trade associations come to mind. My 2009 research paper for the Canadian Foundation for the Americas (FOCAL) also explains the importance of this work for shaping a country’s trade policy.
So, for the next ten years, we are positioning ourselves to continue serving businesses by working in partnership with trade associations and other BSOs to provide timely and accessible information that keeps their members prepared to seize the opportunities and meet the challenges of doing business internationally.
In the trade and development arena, we have gained significant expertise on regional economic integration arrangements in the Caribbean, having addressed such issues as:
- The framework for effective trade policymaking at the national and regional levels
- Implementation of trade policies at the national level
- Effective mechanisms to facilitate trade in goods and in services within a regional trading bloc
- Reforming the legislative framework
This expertise is extremely valuable to regions in Africa and the Pacific where countries have been revitalizing regional integration efforts started in the 1960s. Meanwhile, this year the Caribbean Commonwealth (CARICOM) celebrates 40 years of regional integration, and its successes and ongoing challenges provide models and valuable lessons learned for other regions.
Finally, we have begun to take advantage of funding opportunities to develop and implement our own innovative solutions to the ongoing development challenges. In this area as well, we seek partners with which to work on those issues in which we have mutual interests.
Overall, I’m very much looking forward to the next ten years of DevelopTradeLaw. I hope that we will have opportunities to continue to work together.
