Jamaica

Mr. Chairman;
Right Honourable Prime Minister of Barbados;
Outgoing Chairman of the Council for Finance and Planning;
Other Ministers of Finance and Planning;
Central Bank Governors;
Representatives of International, Hemispheric and Regional Organisations;
Representatives of the Private Sector;
Distinguished Delegates;
Staff of the Caribbean Community Secretariat;
Members of the Media;
Ladies and Gentlemen;

Apart from the selection and fortunes of the West Indies Cricket team, there is no other issue that evokes, in this region, a richer, more sustained, more fierce, and more misplaced commentary than the purposes and workings of the Caribbean Single Market and Economy.

In both instances, the debate seems to be inspired by the desire of the people of the Caribbean for the region and its institutions to succeed, and the unwillingness therefore to accept any departure from full effort and best practice.

In a year when the Caribbean Community is celebrating its 30th anniversary, the Community’s Heads of Government, as well as the Trade and Finance Ministers and senior officials will culminate a series of meetings in Jamaica in June and July with the Twenty Fourth Regular meeting of the Heads of Government in Montego, 2-5 July 2003.

MONTEGO BAY, JAMAICA – A meeting to prepare CARIFORUM member states for the Fifth World Trade Organization (WTO) Ministerial Conference, September 10 to 14, in Cancun, Mexico, came to a close today. The meeting, entitled_ Caribbean Region Pre- Cancun Meeting, was held June 16 to 19; organized by the Caribbean Regional Negotiating Machinery (RNM), in collaboration with the Commonwealth Secretariat and the Netherlands-based ACP-EU Technical Centre for Agriculture and Rural Co-operation (CTA).

MONTEGO BAY, JAMAICA – United States Trade Representative Robert Zoellick convened an informal meeting of Trade Ministers, from selected Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA) countries, in Maryland, June 12, 2003. Ministers from thirteen countries attended, drawn from all regions of the hemisphere. The main focus of discussion was on the goals of the FTAA and the core elements needed to achieve economic success and enhance political support for the FTAA.

MONTEGO BAY, JAMAICA – CARIFORUM member states’ senior officials and experts, with responsibility for trade, and specialists from regional and international bodies are meeting in Montego Bay, Jamaica. The four-day meeting will prepare the region for the Fifth World Trade Organization (WTO) Ministerial Conference in Cancun, Mexico, September 10 to 14. The Ministerial Conference marks the half-way mark for Doha Agenda negotiations launched in Doha, Qatar, November 2001.

My presence here today as Prime Minister is the consequence of an electoral choice that is without precedent in the post-independence history of my country.

It focuses my mind on the fact that we live in unprecedented times – in a world caught up with difficult and dangerous new tensions, and confronted with blistering and bewildering change that makes it often very difficult for our people to see the future.

At its Fourteenth Inter-Sessional Meeting (in Port-of-Spain, Trinidad and Tobago, 14-15 February 2003), the Conference of Heads of Government of the Caribbean Community “considered the situation developing over Iraq and expressed their profound concern at the escalation of global tensions and their grave implications for the preservation of international peace and security.”

Since then there has been an outbreak of war. The Caribbean Community regrets the resulting loss of life on all sides.

CHRIST CHURCH, BARBADOS – A College of Negotiators Meeting will be convened in Kingston, Jamaica from March 31 to April 1, 2003. The session will finalize CARICOM’s preparation for the 13th Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA) Trade Negotiation Committee (TNC) Meeting in Puebla, Mexico from April 8 to 11. The College comprises Lead and Alternate Lead Negotiators representing CARICOM in the FTAA’s nine Negotiating Groups and one Ad Hoc Group on Rules of Origin (an ad hoc group of the Negotiating Group on Market Access).

CHRIST CHURCH, BARBADOS – Hon. P.J. Patterson, Prime Minister of Jamaica, lauded the RNM for “the tremendous work being done” in relation to the Region’s participation in WTO, FTAA and ACP/EU negotiations. He was reporting to the Fourteenth Inter-Sessional Meeting of the Conference of Heads of Government of the Caribbean Community, held from the 14th to 15th of February in Port-of-Spain, Trinidad and Tobago, in his capacity as Chairman of the Prime Ministerial Sub-Committee on External Negotiations.