The fifth Summit of the Americas officially opened at 4:00 this afternoon
in Port of Spain, Trinidad. The big news was the arrivals of the region’s
opposite poles of power, US President Barack Obama and Venezuelan President
Hugo Chavez. And while that encounter has hemispheric implications, CARICOM
was not to be left out of the dialogue, and certainly not when it had home court
advantage! CARICOM chair and Belizean Prime Minister Dean Barrow carried the
torch for the region, and speaking right before President Barack Obama, outlined
the priority issues for the Caribbean. He spoke first about the goals of the
summit.
Prime Minister Dean Barrow, CARICOM Chairman
“My country Belize is thus a microcosm of our polyglot hemisphere
and a case study of how to reconcile difficulties of distance geography and
heritage with the imperative of a regional destiny. Our discussions have been
planned around the themes of promoting human prosperity, energy security, and
environmental sustainability. Implicit in the first is the fundamental issue
of economic viability. Today the threat to that viability for the smaller and
more vulnerable among us constitute a storm cloud that not even the fierce benediction
of the Trinidad and Tobago sun can disperse.
For us in the Caribbean, the fallout from the global situation has presented
severe challenges and its consequences are being felt in the financial sector,
the real economy, and our social sector.”
And along with the financial threat, Barrows said there is the issue
of crime.
Prime Minister Dean Barrow,
“Indeed our community and the hemisphere has for some time been the
phenomenon of every increasing crime, fuelled in large part by trafficking illicit
drugs and arms and by deportees from the developed countries. In the Caribbean
we are sandwiched between the largest producers of cocaine to the south and
the largest consumer countries to the north. The pencil of God has no eraser
and so the policies to deal adequately with transnational crime and citizen
security must not only be multidimensional in scope but anchored by real international
cooperation.”
He then elaborated on the state of the region’s finances and
its needs.
Prime Minister Dean Barrow,
“We in the Caribbean look forward to at least one positive development
from the international crisis, the opportunity for reform of the global financial
architecture. We therefore particularly welcome the declaration by the G20 of
the determination to reform and modernize the international financial institutions
to ensure they can assist members and share holders effectively in the new challenges
they face. Even more critical is the assurance that the merging and developing
economies, including the poorest, must have greater voice and representation.
There are two reforms that the Caribbean countries regard as sin a quo
non. One is the need for special treatment to be accorded to highly indebted
middle income countries that because of well known structural vulnerabilities
are finding it impossible to relieve their debt burdens.
Bear Stearns, Merrill Lynch et al were not brought down by offshore financial
centers. The financial crisis that has now enveloped us all occurred for pre-lapsarian
reasons that had nothing to do with Caribbean jurisdictions. Surely then, the
way forward now is to insist on and expand the modalities for effective exchange
of tax information. It is not to precipitate a pile on effect in our small countries
by destroying a critical component of the very services areas into which we
were encouraged to diversify.”
He concluded with reasons why the region should be proud.
Prime Minister Dean Barrow,
“We are also proud of our long distinction as the bastion of stability.
Our democracy is like a flung cast net, capturing every stripe of opinion and
diversity of view. It is a free wheeling rambunctious marketplace of ideas informed
by the Jeffersonian principle that error of opinion may always be safely allowed
to stand where reason is left free to combat it. And it is out of this tradition
that we have produced world class thinkers, noble laureates in economics and
literature, leaders of global institutions, cynosures in the arts and Olympic
champions in sports. And our positive record as part of the hemispheric process
for more than 40 years is a clear demonstration of our commitment to the benefits
of cooperation among the nations of North, Central, and South America and the
Caribbean.”
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