It is my great pleasure, Excellency, to welcome you to the Caribbean Community Secretariat and to extend to you congratulations on your appointment as the United Kingdom’s Plenipotentiary Representative to our Caribbean Community. CARICOM’s relationship with the United Kingdom is a historically important, strong and strategic one that is always evolving, as the best relationships tend to do. Your role is a key one, facilitating as it does the fluid exchanges that maintain those relations.
Your wide experience, including in matters related to the European Union, of which the United Kingdom is a key member and with which CARICOM Member States enjoy mutually beneficial relations, will no doubt facilitate the further deepening of ties between our countries.
Excellency, UK-CARICOM relations are as diverse as they are deep, spanning from diplomatic and commercial to social and cultural ties, strengthened by a vibrant and active Caribbean diaspora in the UK.
These ties are further bolstered by the UK-Caribbean Forum which provides an important opportunity for identifying, discussing and agreeing upon the priorities for our co-operation bilaterally, regionally and multilaterally. CARICOM looks forward to yet another productive exchange in June on such issues of mutual importance as security, climate change, the Post-2015 Development Agenda, sustainable trade and economic growth.
High Commissioner, the torrential rains that had such a destructive impact in St Vincent and the Grenadines, Saint Lucia and Dominica this past Christmas is an only too familiar and sobering reminder of our vulnerabilities. The swift response by your Government to assist the countries in distress is highly appreciated and is further testimony to the strength of our relationship.
The devastation wrought by that unusual weather event was a stark reminder that climate change and its related natural disasters with consequential environmental and economic damage are a reality for us. It is also a reality for you given your experience with the flooding of the Rivers Thames and Severn earlier this year. When such experience is put in the context of climate change, it hits close to home and close to heart and becomes everyone’s business.
Your Government has clearly recognised the vital nature of this issue globally and to the Region. Through its Department for International Development (DFID), it has provided assistance for climate change initiatives undertaken by the Caribbean Community Climate Change Centre (CCCCC) as well as other regional programmes, through the Caribbean Development Bank (CDB).
Excellency, I can name similar examples in respect of each of the ongoing and ever relevant priority issues on which the United Kingdom and CARICOM cooperate. This is amply demonstrated in the support by DFID for the Community’s Reform Process which is well underway. I want to express my personal appreciation to your Government for its timely response to my request for assistance in that regard.
The progress in the two prongs of the change process, the Strategic Plan for the Community and the transformed Secretariat, has been satisfactory. With your assistance, as part of the Strategic Planning process, we have been able to conduct wide-ranging consultations in every Member State of the Community as well as in two Associate Members. The Draft Strategic Plan is well advanced and will be ready for the Heads of Government Meeting in July. The in-house change team here at the Secretariat has been working closely with the Change Facilitation Team to improve the effectiveness and efficiency of our organisation.
Excellency, as we speak of the value we place on our relations, I wish to bring to your attention matters of continuing concern to our Member States. The on-going adverse effect of the global financial and economic crisis on our small highly-indebted and vulnerable middle-income countries of CARICOM is being exacerbated by the practice of many development partners of ‘graduating’ middle income countries from access to concessionary aid. This is based primarily on the flawed assumption that GDP per capita is an appropriate measure of development.
The EU has followed this trend by introducing differentiation in its new development policy. I am hopeful that, given the United Kingdom’s standing in the EU and its ties to the Region, it will be a leader in advocating on the Community’s behalf in the Councils of the EU as well as in other fora, with respect to how that policy is applied given the vulnerability of our Member States.
Like any mature relationship, there are issues which arise periodically that require dialogue and understanding to resolve. For example, the Region had long expressed its concerns about the manner in which the United Kingdom Air Passenger Duty is being applied, and its effects on Caribbean tourism. In that respect, it is my understanding that today in his budget statement the Chancellor has announced that there will be reforms to the APD. We look forward with positive anticipation to receiving details of the reform.
Similarly, Excellency, the Caribbean Community places great importance on the issue of Reparations for Caribbean Slavery and Native Genocide. Our Heads of Government last week reiterated their desire to engage with your Government and other European nations in substantive exchange on the matter in the context of development and in the spirit of the mutually respectful and amicable relations which we enjoy.
I am convinced that the UK-CARICOM relationship is strong and mature enough to meet the challenge of finding reasonable solutions to these issues and any others that may emerge. We have done so in the past and I have no doubt that we will so do in the future. We will continue to work together steadfastly and aggressively on the things that we do agree on, in the interest of the security, prosperity and sustainability of our respective communities and the global population.
Excellency, in closing, let me warmly welcome you to the CARICOM family and pledge to you my full support and that of my staff, as you take on the duties of Plenipotentiary Representative of the United Kingdom to CARICOM.
