Washington defends CARICOM aid level
by Rickey Singh
BRIDGETOWN, (CANA)-- Caribbean Community (CARICOM) countries are receiving the highest level of economic aid from the United States on a per capita basis compared with all the countries in the Latin American-Caribbean region. This claim, CANA was informed yesterday, is part of a detailed assessment provided by President Bill Clinton's administration to illustrate to the region's governments how Washington has been honouring its commitment in the areas of trade, development, finance and the environment, under the 1997 'Barbados Accord" on Partnership for Prosperity and Security in the Caribbean. For the two years since the U.S.-Caribbean Summit in Barbados at which President Clinton joined Caribbean leaders in signing the 1997 Accord, Washington has provided some US$40M in economic aid to the English-speaking Caribbean and much larger sums, it said, to both Haiti and the Dominican Republic that were also signatories to the accord. In terms of aid per capita, this assistance works out to about US$11, compared to an average of some US$3 per capita for all receiving countries of the Western Hemisphere. And for fiscal year 1998-1999, the U.S. said it is providing a total of US$17M in regional projects with the Eastern Caribbean countries being the primary beneficiary. At the most recent meeting of the U.S.-Caribbean Committee on Trade, Development, Finance and the Environment held in Washington last month, the Clinton administration's assessment of implementation of the 'Barbados Accord' was provided against the background of some sharp criticisms from the Caribbean that it seemed more anxious to focus on the security and justice segment of the accord than those relating to trade and economic development. The meeting served to clarify some of the misunderstandings, according to the then leader of Washington's negotiating team on the Committee, John Hamilton, now U.S. ambassador to Peru, who told CANA it was generally "a good meeting...and relations are, I think, back on track". The implementation process of the "Action Plan" that resulted from the 1997 Barbados Accord, covers, in addition to trade and aid assistance in education, civil aviation, telecommunications and disaster preparedness. The Assistant Administrator of the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) for Latin America and the Caribbean, Mark Schneider, has explained that his government had developed in "close cooperation with Caribbean governments and regional organisations" a programme for fiscal years 2000 to 2005 which will focus on four areas of key importance to the region. These have been identified as: employment, the environment, justice administration and disaster mitigation. Some US$30M in funding will be provided for the period for which Congressional approval will be sought. Seemingly anxious to counter the criticisms it has attracted for derailing the Caribbean's preferential arrangement for banana exports to Europe and for comparatively insignificant levels of aid - in contrast to what it did in the decades of the 70s and 80s - Washington, according to one top Caribbean official wants to appear on the moral high ground in the implementation of the 'Barbados Accord". But neither Hamilton nor his USAID colleague, Schneider shares that view, arguing instead that an objective assessment of implementation of the accord was in accordance with the emphasis being placed in maintaining, as a matter of policy, good relations with the Caribbean region. The United States and all other bilateral and multilateral donors to the Caribbean, they said, meet Caribbean leaders every two years to establish priorities for aid to the region, coordinate programmes and promote private sector growth. In this context, the Steering Committee of the Caribbean Group for Cooperation in Economic Development (CGCED), met in Washington in May this year to exchange views against the background of the 1998 aid of some US$200M to the English-speaking Caribbean by the World Bank and the Inter-American Development Bank.
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