CARICOM foreign ministers see a critical need to refine political vision
CARICOM Foreign Ministers have noted the critical need to refine the region's political vision for the 21st century in line with the main trends in current international relations. This was among the conclusions of the Second Meeting of the Council for Foreign and Community Relations (COFCOR) which was held in Basseterre, St Kitts-Nevis on May 13-14. A communique issued by the Georgetown-based CARICOM Secretariat said that in their review, the ministers noted the need for refining the political vision of the community and classified this as an urgent task. The communique said that the ministers also acknowledged the need to assess the political realities of globalisation and the Free Trade Areas of Americas initiative. The ministerial gathering reviewed progress to date on three sets of external negotiations: the Post-Lome Arrangements, the World Trade Organisatiion (WTO) and the FTAA. Preparations for the upcoming WTO negotiations were prominent, the communique said. Key topics for CARICOM are the built-in agenda items (agriculture and services), the so-called `Singapore Issues' - government procurement, investment and competition policy - and the treatment of small economies in the WTO. Business facilitation measures in the FTAA process were reviewed and the status of negotiations considered, the communique added. On the vexed issue of bananas, the communique said that the ministers revisited the steps which had been taken to institute the strategy crafted by CARICOM Heads of Government in Santo Domingo to forward the interests of regional banana producing countries in the wake of the WTO ruling against the European Union Banana Import system. Noting the European Commission's intention to submit new proposals on this system by May 31, 1999 "the ministers strongly advocated the need to intensify the consultations with the major interests in the next two weeks". The ministers voiced concern over the effects of trade liberalisation and were particularly dismayed at the implications of the WTO ruling on the EU Banana Import regime. Ministers registered the community's "gravest concern" at the continuing tragedy in the Serbian province of Kosovo. "They noted with alarm the continuing reports of ethnic cleansing of the Kosovo Albanians. They were extremely distressed at the profound suffering and the massive displacement of hundreds of thousands of civilians and the impact which this displacement was having on neighbouring states", the communique said. It said that CARICOM has always resisted the use of force without authorisation by the United Nations Security Council and pushed for the use of multilateral institutions for the resolution of conflicts. The ministers reaffirmed their countries' firm adherence to the UN Charter principles and appealed to all parties in the Kosovo conflict to pursue an urgent and negotiated settlement to the crisis. On relations with the United States, the foreign ministers reviewed cooperation with Washington within the framework of the Bridgetown Accord - Partnership for Prosperity and Security in accordance with the call made by the Conference of Heads of Government at its Tenth Inter-Sessional meeting in Suriname in March this year. "They agreed that it was important to engage in early discussions with the US Secretary of State (Madeleine Albright) on the state of the cooperation and to discuss comprehensively issues of critical concern to the Caribbean and the USA. They were prepared to host the meeting in the Caribbean", the communique said. The ministers also appealed to the international community to stick to the undertakings reached in Barbados in 1994 in support of the Small Island Developing States (SIDS). The ministers voiced their continuing concern at the posture adopted by the donor community relative to the areas identified in the Barbados Programme of Action. The communique said the ministers were particularly concerned that aid in the area of human resource development would not be forthcoming. The ministers accepted the recommendations of the working group set up by COFCOR to have the Caribbean Sea internationally recognised as a Special Area in the context of sustainable development. They urged countries of the Caribbean to back the Association of Caribbean States Special Committee on the conservation and preservation of the Caribbean Sea. On Guyana/Venezuela relations, the communique took note of the existing good relations between the two countries and welcomed the recent visit to Guyana by the Minister of External Affairs of Venezuela, Dr Jose Vicente Rangel for the establishment and first meeting of a high level bilateral commission. The CARICOM ministers "anticipated that the implementation of the work programme of this Bilateral Commission would contribute in a significant and positive manner to the enhancement of functional cooperation between the two countries". Those in attendance at the meeting comprised: Hilroy Humphreys, Minister of Trade, Commerce and Business Development, Antigua and Barbuda; Billie Miller, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade, Barbados; John Briceno; Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Natural Resources and the Environment, Belize; Mark Isaac, Minister of State in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Grenada; Clement Rohee, Minister of Foreign Affairs, Guyana; Denzil Douglas; Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs, St Kitts-Nevis; Jon Odlum, Acting Minister of Foreign Affairs, Saint Lucia; Allan Cruickshank, Minister of Foreign Affairs, St Vincent and the Grenadines; Errol G. Snijders, Minister of Foreign Affairs, Suriname; Ralph Maraj, Minister of Foreign Affairs, Trinidad and Tobago; Fritz Longchamp, Minister of Foreign Affairs, Haiti. Dominica was represented by Irwin La Rocque, Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Jamaica by Stafford Neil, Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Foreign Affairs. 
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