Dr. Claudius Preville, a Citizen of Saint Lucia, is an economist with more than 20 years of professional experience in the areas of international trade and investment policy, theory and negotiations. He has been engaged in negotiating free trade agreements (FTAs) including the CARIFORUM-EU EPA, the COMESA-EU EPA, SADC-EU EPA, and Papua New Guinea-EU EPA. He was also one of the negotiators in the development of a Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA). I have also worked on other bi-lateral FTAs in the Western Hemisphere including the possibility of an FTA between CARICOM and the USA and CARICOM and MERCOSUR.
In addition to negotiations, Dr. Preville has worked extensively in capacity building for both public and private sector officials in Africa, the Caribbean, and Pacific countries. Several long-term and short-term assignments have been done in Africa and the Pacific. Countries include: Ethiopia; Seychelles; Fiji; Papua New Guinea; Tonga; Vanuatu; Solomon Islands; Cook Islands; Botswana; Samoa, South Africa; Zambia; Lesotho, among others. The scope of the work includes: trade negotiations; trade policy; investment climate; export strategy; services sector policy, among others.
Recognizing the challenges faced by companies in developing countries, Dr. Preville has developed a mentoring program for entrepreneurs that shows in detail individual steps to be introduced to their businesses to transform them into profitable ventures. Several of his mentees have reported the significant success they realized after following his program.
Recently, Dr. Preville was the Team Leader for preparation and execution of two business, trade and investment conferences between the European Union and Papua New Guinea; and two Business Forums between the European Union and Nepal.
He holds a Ph.D. from Erasmus University’s Institute of Social Studies (ISS) in The Hague, The Netherlands. His thesis is entitled Trade Liberalization under Imperfect Competition and is published by Shaker, BV. He also holds a master’s degree in economics from the ISS and a bachelor’s degree in computer science and physics from the University of the West Indies.