WILLEMSTAD - Business owners at Curaçao’s Freezone are hoping for an improvement in trade with the launch of twice-weekly flights from Trinidad and Tobago to the island via Caribbean Airlines.

Fiorina Hernandez, Investment Promoter at Curinde, said that the Freezone has been a source of business between Trinidad and Tobago and Curaçao for many years and it is hoped that the opening of new routes between the countries will stimulate additional trade between the islands.

“It gives the possibility for tourists to enter the zone to do shopping. The shopping is based on wholesale however if someone wants to shop and carry something with them it must be maximum US$100, otherwise it will be shipped to their country or sent to the airport on the day of their departure,” she said.

One shop owner, who supplies goods to several Trinidad and Tobago stores, said with the decline in available foreign exchange Trinidadian business has dwindled somewhat.

As a result Freezone businesses have attempted to make their items more available by cutting the sizes of bulk purchases – buyers can purchase some items individually, or in bundles of 12 or 6.

Source: LoopNews (Alina Doodnath)