A packed agenda awaits CARICOM Special Summit
--- to feature CSME, WTO, U.S., Cuba...
By Rickey Singh
Guyana Chronicle
November 12, 2003
BRIDGETOWN---Caribbean Community (CARICOM) leaders have a packed 13-item agenda for a special two-day summit which begins in Castries, St. Lucia tomorrow.
Guyana's delegation will be headed by President Bharrat Jagdeo and will include Foreign Minister Rudy Insanally and Minister for Foreign Trade, Clement Rohee.
Challenging trade, economic and political issues of importance to the 15-member Community, including the Caribbean Single Market and Economy (CSME), Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA), relations with the United States of America and Cuba, as well forthcoming international meetings are included on the agenda.
Originally scheduled to have been hosted by the government of Prime Minister Owen Arthur of Barbados but shifted to St. Lucia, with new arrangements by the CARICOM Secretariat, the Castries summit is being hosted by the government of Prime Minister Kenny Anthony.
Participating leaders and ministers will move straight into working sessions following an opening statement by current CARICOM chairman, Prime Minister P.J. Patterson of Jamaica.
He is reported to have been in touch with colleagues urging widest possible participation for concerted efforts to resolve outstanding matters from the annual regular CARICOM Summit he hosted in Montego Bay last July.
However, the "Chronicle" has learnt that at least three Prime Ministers are expected to miss the summit. Absentees will include:
Ralph Gonsalves of St. Vincent and the Grenadines, who has been ordered by his doctor to a week of complete rest and relaxation; Pierre Charles of Dominica, currently receiving medical attention in the USA; and Keith Mitchell, deeply involved in Grenada's current general election campaign.
There could be no confirmation whether President Jean Bertrand Aristide will attend. But Haiti is one of the political matters to be discussed in association with its forthcoming Bicentennial Independence Anniversary in January 2004.
Tomorrow's special summit will take place amid increasing reservations about the "readiness" by a number of member governments with the required legislative measures for implementation of the first phase of the Community's single market at year end, as originally pledged..
According to some ministerial and senior government technocrats, the "Chronicle" was informed that this was now more likely to occur following the 15th Inter-Session Meeting of CARICOM heads of government scheduled for St. John's Antigua in February, 2004.
The Castries summit will be preceded by today's special meeting, also in the Saint Lucian capital, of CARICOM's Council on Trade and Economic Development (COTED).
Crucial decisions include settling for a common regional position on the hemispheric--wide free trade arrangements ahead of the forthcoming FTAA Ministerial Meeting scheduled for Miami from November 20-21.
A report from the COTED meeting is expected to be ready in time for the CARICOM leaders deliberations on common approaches by the region on negotiations involving the FTAA; World Trade Organization (WTO) and proposed Economic Partnership Agreements (EPAs) involving the African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) group and the European Union (EU).
Discussions on USA-Caribbean relations will include a "briefing" on the recent working breakfast meeting held in New York between President George Bush and four CARICOM leaders.
That meeting, which coincided with the formal opening in September of the current United Nations General Assembly, was attended by the President of Guyana, Bharrat Jagdeo and Prime Ministers Anthony of Saint Lucia, Grenada's Mitchell and The Bahamas' Perry Christie.
Along with a summary of the discussions between Bush and the four CARICOM leaders, the Castries meeting will also revisit the Community's stand in favour of the International Criminal Court (ICC), within the context of the request by the USA for exemption of its nationals from the jurisdiction of the ICC if wanted for war crimes and crimes against humanity.
Plans for a proposed mission to Washington by a delegation of CARICOM's Council for Foreign and Community Relations (COFCOR), and the Community's participation in the Ministerial Meeting of the 25-nation Association of Caribbean States (ACS) in Panama City on November 27, are also to be addressed.
Cuba's request for the establishment in a CARICOM state of a Technical Training Centre for Nursing and other Medical Specialities, as part of its overall assistance to the Community, as well as appropriate arrangements for observing "CARICOM--Cuba Day" annually on December 8, will be discussed in the context of improved relations.
Updates in arrangements for the inauguration of the Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ), now likely in the first quarter of 2004, and the region's hosting of the 2007 Cricket World Cup are among "preparations" issues on the packed agenda that is expected to take the leaders late into Friday.
NOTE:
Please use photos of President Jagdeo, Clement Rohee, rudy Insanally, Ralph Gonsalves, Kenny Anthony, and Keith Mitchell