Trade Department to undergo restructuring this year

Governor Daniel Pruce has stated that the Trade Department would undergo restructuring in 2025

While delivering his Speech from the Throne address on Tuesday, January 7, the Governor indicated it was an initiative to be rolled out by the Wheatley administration throughout the year.

“In 2025, substantial amendments will be made to the Virgin Islands Investment Act 2021 and Business Licensing Act 2022,” the Governor stated.

“These changes will strategically transfer authority from the Trade Commission to the minister and ministry responsible for Trade,” he continued.

He indicated that this transition would provide a more focused approach in developing the territory’s trade services.

In July 2024, Premier Dr Natalio Wheatley took over the portfolio of that ministry.

Pruce also stated that the department would undergo further changes.

“This will be accompanied by a comprehensive restructuring of the Trade Department to ensure efficient delivery of services,” he said.

“The centralisation of authority within the ministry will better align trade policies within our broader economic development goals, ensuring a cohesive and strategic approach to fostering investment and economic growth in the Virgin Islands,” he explained.

In October 2023, government passed the Virgin Islands Trade Commission Act (Suspensory) Act, 2023, thereby suspending the Trade Commission and the previous law which had brought it into force.

At the time, Lorna Smith headed the Trade ministry, to which she expressed that the statutory body was being suspended because its establishment would have been a costly endeavour.

In passing the law, Smith reiterated that the suspension of the Trade Commission doesn’t mean the government won’t return to it and the three pieces of legislation it is meant to oversee.

However, while the Trade Commission had been suspended for over a year, there had been no new talks of its reinstatement since.