Honourable Prime Minister
Her Excellency the First Lady
Former President and Leader of the Opposition
Chancellor of the Judiciary
Speaker of the National Assembly
Honourable Ministers
Members of the Diplomatic Corps
Distinguished Guests
Deputy Secretary-General and Staff of the Secretariat
Members of the Media
Ladies and Gentlemen
It is not only a signal honour but a great pleasure as well to welcome you all to this evening’s celebrations to mark the Twenty-Seventh Anniversary of the establishment of the Caribbean Community and Common Market. Last year, we took the unprecedented step of hosting our youngsters exclusively, as in large measure they will be the primary builders and main beneficiaries of what CARICOM can truly become. It may not surprise you to know that they expressed the strong wish that their function should be an annual affair. Be careful! I may just take them up on it!
It is indeed fitting that these annual celebrations take place here in Guyana. Hardly is the spirit of the Community more evident and widespread anywhere in the Community than here in Guyana. And for a good reason. Guyana is not only one of the four original signatories to the Treaty of Chaguaramas which established the Community, it is one of only three CARICOM Member States which continue to mark that auspicious event of 4 July 1973 by observing CARICOM Day as a national holiday. Also, our very collective presence here tonight bears a not-so-silent testimony to the considerable and generous support that Guyana provides to the Community by hosting its Secretariat – a support which I am sure the new Headquarters Building would dramatically enhance.
Mr. Prime Minister, let me therefore say how particularly pleased we are that you have found it possible to take time off from your very weighty matters of State – and I know how very weighty some of these are, particularly at this time – to join us this evening to share in this spirit of Community – a spirit which in the words of the Founding Fathers made them “determined to consolidate and strengthen the bonds of friendship which have historically existed among their peoples”. There was hardly ever a time in the life of the Community when there was greater need for a demonstration of that spirit.
Excellencies, Ladies and Gentlemen, all too often the question is asked what is CARICOM doing? I am afraid that until we are all generally clear about who and/or what is CARICOM, we are unlikely to find the right answer. But I’ll return to this a little later.
Over the past year the Region has encountered many serious challenges, some of which are being grappled with even as I speak. As you are all aware, our traditional export markets have been less and less attractive or secure as we lose preferences for various products, bananas being the most well-known but not the only one, and as the certainty and life of those preferences diminish. As regard perhaps our most traditional market – the European market – even the recently concluded European Union/ACP Partnership Agreement with its undoubted enhanced facility for private sector development, would not restore the earlier conditions (status quo ante). Nor would the enhanced CBI – approved by the United States Congress – fully offset the losses experienced in the North American market with the establishment of NAFTA. All our traditional exports, particularly textiles, sugar, rice, bananas, cocoa, etc., face increasing uncertainty in the globalised liberalised trading world dominated by the WTO.
Furthermore, the steps which have been taken by a number of our countries to diversify into services have themselves now come under attack by the developed countries, many of which were the very advocates of such diversification, on the grounds that the low tax regimes or other tax concessions that we grant to attract foreign capital into our offshore financial services sector, constitute harmful tax competition. Our countries are therefore to be subjected to a variety of penal actions unless they subscribe to certain unilaterally determined policy positions and actions set out by these developed countries.
This pincer movement – a diminution of the export markets for our goods and the threat to curtail the scope for the development of our services sector – places on us a greater burden to be more self reliant than ever before. It is against this background that the necessity for CARICOM as a wider and deeper mechanism for production at home and as a united voice abroad, can be seen.
To achieve this however, CARICOM must be upgraded beyond a Community and Common Market into a Community inclusive of a Single Market and Economy. Over the past year, much has been achieved to afford us the first glimpse of the reality of the Single Market and Economy. The nine Protocols which will transform CARICOM have now been completed, most have been signed, and some have already been put in effect, even if only provisionally so. The next four months will witness a spate of activities aimed at facilitating the implementation of all.
Even so, as a market, a CARICOM including Haiti, would be a mere 15 million inhabitants. However, when account is taken of the trade and economic agreements which CARICOM has negotiated with Venezuela, Colombia, the Dominican Republic and most recently, Cuba, the preferential market access available to CARICOM producers extends way beyond CARICOM’s relatively small 15 million (Haiti included) inhabitants, to closer to 90 million. Therein lies one of the major opportunities which CARICOM has provided not just for our producers, but for our consumers and our labour force, especially our young people.
CARICOM is however, not only about trade and economics, it is about the opportunities it provides for the holistic development of the complete Caribbean person. It is for that reason that events such as the forthcoming CARIFESTA in St. Kitts and Nevis (17-26 August) holds such a vital place in the Community’s calendar of events. It is also for that reason that such great importance is attached to our common struggle against the scourge of the millennium – HIV/AIDS.
Values are also vital to the kind of Community we wish to build. Whatever the weaknesses of our Community, our democratic tradition, while not unblemished, is the envy of many within the Hemisphere and further abroad. A while ago I made reference to Haiti, including it within the CARICOM family. Certain steps however, remain to be taken by that country if it is to complete the legal and other conditions for entry into the Community. But the manner in which that country has interpreted the results of the recent elections remains a source of great concern to the international community, as well as to the CARICOM family. It is our fervent hope that Haiti would not squander the opportunity for joining both, for we will all be the poorer for it.
But, opportunities can however remain just that. For opportunities to be of any value they must be grasped and exploited and here is where I return to my original question and, as one of the world’s great leaders did ask of his countrymen and women, I ask of you – Ask not only what CARICOM can do for you, but equally, what you can do for CARICOM? It is the answer to this latter question more than any other that is likely to give you a clue as to what CARICOM can do for you. Because who else or what else is CARICOM but you and I, and all of us together?
There is a common mistaken view that CARICOM is somehow the Heads of Government, or the Councils of Ministers, or the Secretariat, and at times, I have even heard it said that CARICOM is Carrington! Well, CARICOM is not only these but all of these, plus you and more. We all, therefore, have a role to play. What is more, CARICOM constitutes the only genuine hope for us as a people, and particularly, for our children.
It is for this reason more than any other that issues which can serve to retard the development of the Community, whether they arise from external sources or from internal dissension, pose such a serious threat to our future as a people, and demand of all of us the demonstration of that spirit of compromise and cooperation which led the Founding Fathers to create our Community.
And so tonight, Ladies and Gentlemen, I want to ask you to reflect very carefully on our Region’s future. It is a responsibility which none of us can evade with impunity. It is a solemn and noble duty which we cannot shirk, if we are to provide a future for those young people who stood in your place one year ago as we celebrated CARICOM Day.
With these no so few words, Ladies and Gentlemen, I invite you to raise your glasses in a Toast to His Excellency the President, His Honourable Prime Minister, the Government and people of Guyana for their outstanding contribution to the building of a Caribbean Community worthy of the aspirations of all our people.
