First of all, my apologies for the late commencement.
I have the distinct pleasure of welcoming you to this Sixteenth Meeting of Ministers of the Caribbean Forum of ACP States (CARIFORUM). As you are aware, the last Meeting of this Council took place in Haiti in October 2007. Since that time, a number of events have taken place – some of them of critical importance to the Member States of CARIFORUM. Foremost among these is the completion of the negotiations, the signing and coming into effect of the Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA) between the European Community and the Member States of CARIFORUM.
As you are aware, much has been said about this Agreement – in favour and against. Of critical importance has been reference to the deficiency in regard to specified dedicated resources within the Agreement, to assist in the implementation and to deal with the supply side constraints of the participating CARIFORUM States. This is a factor which has traditionally inhibited the capacity of this Region to take full advantage of preferential arrangements: be they under Lomé, Cotonou, Caribcan or the CBI.
At this Meeting, we will be discussing a Roadmap to guide the use of the Euro 165 million grant resources being made available to CARIFORUM to finance a Regional Indicative Programme under the 10th European Development Fund. These resources are to be used to support, among other things: the establishment of the OECS Economic Union; CARICOM Trade and Economic Integration within the CSME; wider CARIFORUM cooperation including DR-CARICOM and Haiti-DR bilateral arrangements; and to support capacity building for EPA implementation. We estimate that approximately Euro 72 million or approximately US$100 million will be provided for that purpose. Clearly these resources are by no means sufficient to satisfy the known needs of the Region. In fact, preliminary estimates indicate that the resources required to implement EPA commitments will be in the hundreds of millions of Euros. The challenge now however, is how to use these European Development Fund resources for the maximum benefit of the people of the CARIFORUM Region.
During this Meeting, we will also be discussing three (3) Aid for Trade Initiatives which it is believed can provide support for CARIFORUM trade and trade-related initiatives. The first is the Caribbean Aid for Trade Trust Fund (CARTFUND), which has been recently established at the Caribbean Development Bank and for which the Government of the United Kingdom has pledged an initial sum of 5 million pounds. A Project Steering Committee comprising the technical representatives of the United Kingdom, through DFID, and CARICOM and CARIFORUM has already been established to oversee implementation of the Fund. That Committee has already held its First Meeting and a call for proposals has now been made for utilising these resources and it is hoped that these resources, to be used essentially to support the OECS and CARICOM Integration Processes and EPA implementation, will be committed quickly.
The Second initiative relates to an Aid for Trade Conference in Brussels between the Caribbean and its Development Partners. Such a Conference will attempt to secure access for CARIFORUM to the Euro 1 billion annual Aid for Trade resources, pledged bilaterally by the individual Member States of the European Union. The third Aid for Trade Initiative which will be discussed is the Second WTO Global Aid for Trade Review in July 2009 in Geneva and the task is to see how we as a Region can use the opportunity of that Review to secure trade-related development support from our International Development Partners.
A very important matter on our Agenda today is the establishment of a CARIFORUM Infrastructure Fund to address interconnection issues related to air and sea transport, energy, ICT and communication infrastructure. We will discuss today how we go about establishing that Fund and attracting the resources required to make its operation meaningful to the people of the CARIFORUM region.
All of these discussions on our financial and technical resource requirements and resource mobilisation efforts are taking place against the background of the current global financial and economic crisis. We hope to exchange views on that matter and to indicate how the initiatives I have so far mentioned can form part of the regional response to that crisis.
During this meeting we shall also be looking at a range of other matters including the Second Revision of the ACP/EU Cotonou Partnership Agreement, Arrangements for CARIFORUM/EU Political Dialogue and a CARIFORUM EC Dialogue on Regional Cooperation and Integration. We also hope that the opportunity will be taken to review matters related to the CARIFORUM’s relations to the French Overseas Territories in the Caribbean as well.
Of course, our Agenda would not be complete if we did not engage in some meaningful and in-depth exchange on Climate Change. In that regard, we will be focussing our discussion on the Global Climate Change Alliance and our relationship with the European Union on Climate Change matters.
All of these exchanges will take place against the background of a request for discussions on the Future Governance of CARIFORUM.
Madame Chair, Ladies and Gentlemen, you would notice that we are confronted by a multiplicity of events which have the capacity to affect our development objectives, strategies and priorities; and how we plan to conduct our business. Our Agenda attempts to address these many issues in the context of our relationship with the European Union. We will need to conduct our business with dispatch while giving every item on our Agenda, the attention it deserves.
Madame Chair, permit me in closing to indicate that, in accordance with the principle of rotation, enshrined in the CARIFORUM Rules of Procedure, it is now the turn of Barbados to assume the Chair of CARIFORUM. The Bahamas, the outgoing Chair of CARIFORUM, is unfortunately unable to be with us today to officially hand over to Barbados. Without further ado, I therefore, call on Senator the Honourable Maxine McClean, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade of Barbados, to assume the Chair of CARIFORUM.
I thank you.
