MONTEGO BAY – Outgoing chair of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM), Prime Minister Mia Amor Mottley of Barbados, closed out her sixmonth tenure with a rallying cry for regional solidarity and action in the face of global uncertainty.
Speaking at the opening of the 49th Regular Meeting of the Conference of Heads of Government in Jamaica, where Caribbean leaders first met in 1947 to lay the foundations of regional integration, Mottley reflected on her journey from a “young romantic idealist” and “fervent believer of the regional integration movement” to a more seasoned, though still hopeful, advocate for CARICOM solidarity.
“Our Community has perhaps seen more challenges in these past seven years than at any time since independence,” she said. “But if ever there was a time for regional solidarity, it is absolutely now.”
Highlighting several achievements in trade and economic cooperation during her tenure, the outgoing chair said that CARICOM is now poised to finalise long-awaited revisions to the Common External Tariff (CET) and Rules of Origin, crucial trading instruments that protect regional industry while lowering the cost of essential goods for production.
Commending the Council for Trade and Economic Development and the Community Council for completing the work on these critical tools for intra-regional trade, she said now is the time for political decision on what items can see reduced tariff rates without undermining regional production.
Temporary stay
Prime Minister Mottley also commended the CARICOM Private Sector Organisation (CPSO) for responding to the trade tensions stemming from US actions on Chinese-made shipping vessels, including a 500-member strong participation in a Zoom discussion.
Through advocacy with the US government involving CPSO and the CARICOM Secretariat, the Community secured a temporary stay of the imposition of fees exceeding US$1 million per US port call. This stay reduced the risk of trade and supply-chain disruption and increased inflation in the region.
During the opening ceremony on Sunday night, Mottley said over the course of this last six months one of the region’s major
concerns was the stability of Haiti.
“The world really needs a check on itself when it comes to Haiti. If ever we doubted that there were first class and second class citizens in the eyes of the world don’t doubt it anymore.
“In Haiti more people were killed last year in many months of last year than were killed in any other country on earth including those that were at war, and the subject of military conflict and in spite of that and in spite of the promises, the world has been unable to move beyond the promises and the platitudes that would bring help to the people of Haiti.”
Food insecurity
Mottley said that she was not only talking about the loss of life.
“I’m talking about the displacement of citizens from their homes. I’m talking equally about the food insecurity of the people of Haiti. And let us be real, our capacity as a Caribbean community has limits, purely because of size and capacity financially.
“We can help as best we can as we must. But the world is what is needed as well at this point in time. Beyond simply the deployment of troops from Kenya, without the requisite support in terms of machinery that is necessary to ensure that those… Kenyan troops and others are not sent like lambs to the slaughter, along with the members of the Haitian police force.”
Mottley said that Haiti is trying as best it can to be able to withstand the assault by gangs is to be commended, but at the same time, it is not enough.
“And what is required more than ever is for a truth talk, both within the context of what is possible from Haiti’s perspective, but equally what is possible from the international community.” (CMC/PR)
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