Over the last two days, we have had a most productive and engaging meeting – the first of its kind, bringing together the Sub committees responsible for the CSME and external trade negotiations.
I am encouraged by the unity of purpose and the level of commitment demonstrated by all participants. I want to pay particular tribute to the Prime Minister of Barbados who co-chaired the meeting as well as to Prime Minister the Hon. Ralph Gonzalves, CARICOM Chairman and the Prime Minister of Trinidad and Tobago, the Hon Patrick Manning.
During the meeting, we explored a range of issues of common concern to all Member States and to the furtherance of our integration project. This was done against the background of our work towards a single economy and a single development vision
We concluded that this development vision sets the broad direction and positions for the Region, and commend the document for consideration and adoption by Heads at our upcoming Inter-Sessional Meeting in St. Vincent and the Grenadines.
We reviewed the linkages between the CSME, our external trade policy and Caribbean development. In this context, the Joint Meeting instructed our negotiators to:
– continue negotiations on the Economic Partnership Agreement with the European Union with a view to completing a progressive agreement in support of our development within the agreed timeframe; and
– continue detailed work on enhanced relations with our traditional North American partners.
In this regard, we endorsed the Conference on the Caribbean which is to take place in Washington, June 16-19. This Conference will bring together Caribbean and U.S. leaders, the private sector and NGOs to focus attention on Caribbean/U.S. relations, in particular trade, investment, security and social development.
The Conference will also allow for a collective interface with the Caribbean diaspora.
In our wider Caribbean relations, our Foreign Trade Ministers will be meeting with their counterpart from the Dominican Republic later this month to further negotiations on CARICOM/Dominican Republic Free Trade Agreement.
The Joint Meeting recognized that the effectiveness of our decisions in the CSME and externally, will depend on strong governance arrangements.
We had an initial discussion of a recommendation from the technical working group on governance which Heads will fully discuss at the Inter- sessional Meeting in St. Vincent and the Grenadines.
Our discussions proceeded against the backdrop of the Bicentennial anniversary of the abolition of the Trans Atlantic Slave trade, our determination to eliminate poverty in the shortest possible time and to provide an improved quality of life for our Caribbean people, in particular, the poorest of the poor.
Given the success of this first Joint Meeting of these two Sub-Committees, I have suggested to my colleague Prime Minister of Barbados, that until such time that the CSME is fully functional, we continue to meet in this format at regular intervals.
Let me express our thanks to the Task Force on Governance and Technical Working Group
Once again, Prime Minister Arthur and I thank the delegates for their participation, and the media for its continued interest in these deliberations.
