Mainstreaming trade into the affairs of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) is “absolutely necessary”, said Chair of the Council for Trade and Economic Development (COTED), the Hon. Alva Baptiste, Minister of External Affairs International Trade, Civil Aviation and Diaspora Affairs of Saint Lucia. Delivering remarks at the opening of the Fifty-fifth Meeting of the COTED on Monday morning at the CARICOM Secretariat, in Georgetown, Guyana, Minister Baptiste highlighted the “serious issues” occupying the attention of the Region’s Trade Ministers. “We are not navigating in ordinary weather and in ordinary times. We have to navigate the turbulent air pockets of the change