(CARICOM Secretariat, Turkeyen, Greater Georgetown, Guyana) Secretary-General of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) His Excellency Edwin Carrington completed a two day visit to Haiti on Wednesday 24 September with a visit to Gonaives and Porte du Paix, two of the areas hardest hit during the recent multiple-storm assault on the country.
The visit to the two communities followed meetings with the Prime Minister of Haiti, the Honourable Michele Duvivier Pierre-Louis and some members of her cabinet including the Minister of the Interior the Honourable Paul Antoine Bien-Aime and the Minister of Planning, the Honourable Jean Max Bellerive as well as the Secretary-General of the Presidency, His Excellency Fritz Longchamp. Mr Carrington and his team which included CARICOM Assistant Secretary-General Foreign and Community Relations His Excellency Ambassador Colin Granderson discussed relief and reconstruction in the wake of the devastation wrought by Hurricanes, Fay, Gutav, Hanna and Ike on Haiti.
Also discussed were issues related to the Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA) to be signed between the Caribbean Forum of African Caribbean and Pacific Countries (CARIFORUM) and the European Union (EU) and Haiti’s progress towards meeting the requirements to be part of the CARICOM Single Market. Haiti is one of the signatories to the Revised Treaty of Chaguaramas including the Single Market and Economy.
Secretary-General Carrington said that he now had a much better picture of what was required following the ravages of the storms as the effects of the storm on the landscape of the country could still clearly be seen. One of the matters raised for further discussion was the possible establishment of a relationship between Haiti and the Caribbean Disaster Emergency Response Agency (CDERA).
The CARICOM team also met with the Humanitarian Co-ordinator of the United Nations Development Programme in Haiti Joel Boutroue and the Principal Deputy Special Representative of the United Nations Stabilisation Mission in Haiti (MINUSTAH) Mr Luiz da Costa. Before departing for New York, United States, where he will participate in a round of meetings in the margins of the United Nations General Assembly, the Secretary-General held a media conference at the offices of the CARICOM Representational Office in Haiti, whose Director His Excellency Ambassador Earl Huntley assisted in organising the visit.
While in New York, the Secretary-General will be involved in the meeting between the Foreign Ministers of the Caribbean Community and the United States Secretary of State, Ms Condoleeza Rice as well as the informal meeting of CARICOM’ s Council for Foreign and Community Relations (COFCOR). From new York, Mr Carrington goes to Accra, Ghana for the Heads of Government meeting of the African Caribbean and Pacific Group of Countries (ACP).
