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POLITICS: Caribbean Aims to Cash in on Face Time with Bush

Bert Wilkinson

GEORGETOWN, Apr 30 2007 (IPS) - On Jun. 20, Caribbean leaders will sit down with George W. Bush for the first full summit meeting with a U.S. president in a decade, and from all indications, they have a plethora of issues to put on the table, chief among them trade and disaster preparedness.

Since Democratic President Bill Clinton flew to the eastern Caribbean island of Barbados for a day in May 1997, the two sides have not met for any length of time at the heads of government or state level, though they have formalised annual and sometimes twice yearly meetings with secretaries of state and other high-level officials.

Analysts say the June summit comes at a time of serious anxieties for the 15-nation Caribbean Community (Caricom), 12 of which form a free trade bloc that has functioned smoothly over the years save for the odd row over some members’ protectionist policies.

High-ranking Caricom officials like Assistant Secretary-General Colin Granderson and others agree that the region would be remiss if leaders do not jump at the chance of reinforcing their geopolitical importance to the United States, being right in its backyard.

For one thing, the Ronald Reagan-era Caribbean Basin Initiative and its offshoot, the Caribbean Basin Economic Recovery Act governing trade with the U.S., are now subject to annual unanimous approvals by each member of the World Trade Organisation (WTO), a development governments say makes them feel very insecure.

Washington has also expressed its discomfort with the fact that it has to ask every single country to say yes to renewing the preferential trade deal, which expires in two years.

Caribbean leaders and foreign ministers argue that trade worth an annual average of eight billion dollars is operating at the whims of WTO members and should have some formal, more structured cover.

They are considering asking Washington to negotiate and sign a U.S.-Caribbean free trade agreement, since it has become clear that efforts to forge a hemispheric umbrella agreement have collapsed under the weight of objections from regional Latin American powerhouses like Brazil and Venezuela, among others.

The region’s Central American neighbours have already negotiated their own deal with the U.S., but a definitive position on the Caribbean may well emerge in the days leading up to the summit.

“We can’t continue to operate like this. The negotiations for the Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA) are on a deathbed and not looking good. We have to have proper legal cover to protect our trade with the U.S.,” says Richard Bernal, head of the Caribbean Regional Negotiating Machinery, which coordinates trade strategies.

As another indication that blocs have abandoned the FTAA, Caribbean and Central American leaders are due to meet in Belize on May 12 to discuss their own free trade agreement.

Spokesman Granderson says that meanwhile, the region is crafting an economic vision for itself to ensure survival given ongoing changes in the world’s economic climate.

“The intention this time is not to have a normal summit but to look down the road as to how we can work with the U.S., how we feel it can help the Caribbean,” Granderson said.

The meeting will take place just weeks after the start of the annual hurricane season, with predictions for some ferocious storms this year. Granderson says the Caribbean is interested in a full discussion with Washington on that issue, as well as regional and energy security.

Governments in the Bahamas, Jamaica, Guyana and Trinidad and Tobago have been berating the U.S. for criticising their alleged inability to crack down on the illegal drug trade, contending that the world’s biggest drug consuming nation is not providing adequate resources to help them battle traffickers with millions of dollars at their disposal.

The summit will be held on day two of a four-day “Conference on the Caribbean: A 20/20 Vision,” designed to meet with top decision makers on the one hand, and to tap in to the skills and expertise of the five million West Indians living in the U.S. and Canada.

The Caricom Caucus of Ambassadors in Washington, the Organisation of American States and the World Bank are assisting with funding for the activities during Caribbean Heritage Month.

Granderson says officials will also use trade discussions at the summit to complain about the refusal of the U.S. to comply with a WTO ruling against its outlawing of online gambling. Tiny Antigua took the U.S. to a WTO dispute panel and won a David vs. Goliath encounter over gaming. Antigua is one of the world’s leading online destinations.

Caricom said it wants to “deepen the relationship with the U.S. by addressing issues related to trade, competitiveness and investment and to broaden the dialogue as the U.S. is its closest developed neighbour.”