The Department of Structural Economic Development and Trade (SETT) coordinates the Secretariat’s activities in the areas of sustainable economic development, with a focus on trade and trade-related issues such as commodities and value chain development, customs cooperation, market access and WTO negotiations. It undertakes and ensures the follow-up of activities in the areas of investment promotion and private sector development.
Assistant Secretary-General of the Structural Economic Transformation and Trade – Jamaican National
Mr. Lodge is the Assistant-Secretary-General for Structural Economic Transformation and Trade at the Organisation of African, Caribbean and Pacific States. He is a Jamaican national with 30 years of professional work, primarily on trade and development policies of poor, small and vulnerable OACPS countries. His professional experience spans multinational (DDA), hemispheric (FTAA), bi-regional (EPA and post-Cotonou), and national trade negotiations (bananas). Mr. Lodge has worked on private sector development during his tenure as Director of Trade and Investment at JAMPRO, and Executive Director of JAMCO – a London-based, Government of Jamaica-owned limited liability company that represented the commercial and lobbying interests of Jamaican banana exporters. His expertise also extends to design and management of trade-related technical assistance garnered through his leadership of the ACP MTS and TBT Programmes. Mr. Lodge has published widely, most notably, as co-editor of CARIFORUM-EU EPA – A Practitioners’ Analysis, and more recently, The Promise of a Recalibrated Caribbean-EU Partnership (co-authored with Dr. Jan Yves Remy). He completed post-graduate studies in Monetary Economics at Sir Arthur Lewis Institute of Social and Economic Studies at UWI Mona, and International Trade Policy Research at the Institute of World Economics in Kiel, Germany.