Senator Anthony Hylton Minister of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade says not all economies have taken the potential fall-out from climatic change into account. - Junior Dowie / Staff Photographer

Anthony Hylton, who at different times, held the foreign affairs and energy portfolios in the former People's National Party (PNP) government, is hoping to parlay his legal and policymaking experience into a consulting firm he is establishing with Jamaican attorney, Michelle Brown.

Brown is a former partner in the law firm Myers Fletcher and Gordon, where she focused on international trade, energy and commercial law.

Hylton, who practised law in the United States before entering politics here in the early 1990s, said he and Gordon will undertake legal work and offer advice on maritime, aviation, energy and trade issues.

They are setting up offices at the Courtleigh Corporate Centre, formerly the Island Life Building, in New Kingston and expect to open for business next week.

Trade policy experience

"People know that I have negotiated and have been involved in trade policy from 1990," Hylton told the Financial Gleaner.

Hylton served as a deputy foreign minister, foreign minister and energy minister during the administration of P.J. Patterson.

And when he lost in his Western St Thomas parliamentary seat in 2002, Patterson named him special ambassador and gave him responsibility of developing a liquefied natural gas facility in Jamaica, as an alternative source to oil.

Hylton returned to the foreign ministry when Portia Simpson Miller succeeded Patterson as Prime Minister in 2006.

He is acknowledged to have played a significant role in the negotiations between the European Union at the African Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) group of countries for the Cotonou Agreement that replaced the Lome Convention on aid and trade between the two groups.

He was also involved in the World Trade Organisation's Doha Round of trade talks as well as the initial phases of the EU/ACP talks on the recently-agreed Economic Partner-ship Agreement.

Hylton is the second former PNP cabinet minister to set up a legal and energy-related consultancy since the party lost power last September after 18 years in office. Phillip Pauwell, the former energy, technology and commerce minister recently launched his own firm.

Hylton, however, does not believe that either firm would be hurt by the other.

Not only would they have different areas of emphasis, he suggested, but there would be sufficient demand in the global market for their expertise to make their operations viable.

richard.deane@gleanerjm.com