The agency upon which the Caribbean will depend to strengthen agricultural health and food safety and ensure the highest standards for trade in agricultural products, was launched Thursday in Paramaribo, Suriname.The Caribbean Agricultural Health and Food Safety Agency (CAHFSA) was inaugurated at an elaborate ceremony on the grounds of the Ministry of Agriculture in Suriname, where it will be housed.CAHFSA was given the green light last week in Roseau,Wholesale Jerseys Free Shipping, Dominica, at the Twenty-First Intersessional Meeting of the Conference of Heads of Government.Among CAHFSA’s tasks are developing technical measures and protocols required to achieve SPS certification for agricultural trade. CAHFSA will also devise arrangements to reduce the use of SPS measures as non-tariff barriers,Wholesale Jerseys, including undue administrative delays in the clearance of perishable agricultural goods as restrictions to agricultural trade.Ronald Venetiaan, President of Suriname and Kermechand Raghoebarsing, Minister of Agriculture, Animal Husbandry and Fisheries of Suriname and Edwin Carrington, Secretary-General of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) officiated at the ceremony which featured the signing of the CAHFSA Headquarters Agreement,NFL Jerseys Outlet, the opening of an integrated laboratory, the unveiling of the CAHFSA plaque,Wholesale Jerseys, a mini fair of products and a reception and cultural programme.According to the CARICOM Secretariat, President Venetiaan told the gathering that there was need for clear rules and harmonisation in the region and a complete safety system in agriculture.Recent diseases that posed threats to the agricultural sector such as the H1N1, Bird Flu and BSE (Mad Cow disease) made the region painfully aware of the need for food standards, Venetiaan was quoted as saying.He added that investment in food safety would be of strategic importance in keeping the Region’s export markets open, saying the total value chain must be assessed when considering safety of food and that producers and food handlers were all participants in the food safety quest.According to the Secretary-General,Cheap China Jerseys, CAHFSA’s operations are vital to fulfilling the provisions of the Treaty of Chaguaramas which called for the establishment of effective Sanitary and Phyto-Sanitary regime and for the harmonisation of laws, administrative practices and procedures in respect of agriculture.He noted that the Jagdeo Initiative had identified the current agricultural health and food safety system as a key binding constraint to the further development of the Region’s agricultural sector.“Undoubtedly therefore, this Agency will undergird the drive toward greater Community trade in food and agricultural products giving impetus to the CSME,” Carrington stated.“In particular, in the context of increasing the Region’s share of the global trade in agricultural products and the dearth of national capacity in agricultural health and food safety,Cheap NFL Jerseys, CAHFSA’s role assumes even greater significance,” the Secretary-General said at the launching.The inauguration of CAHFSA was held during a week of events in Suriname devoted to agriculture including a seminar on CAHFSA, a meeting of the Ministerial Council of the Caribbean Regional Fisheries Mechanism (CRFM) and a Special Meeting of the Council for Trade and Economic Development (COTED) on Agriculture.