CCJ single most important CARICOM challenge in 2004
-Belize Prime Minister
Stabroek News
March 22, 2004
Prime Minister of Belize, Said Musa says the single most important challenge facing the Caribbean Commu-nity this year is the successful establishment of the Carib-bean Court of Justice (CCJ).
"Our approach to its establishment must be regional, and should not be driven by domestic political imperatives," the Belize prime minister advised while addressing the Sixteenth Meeting of the Council for Trade and Economic Development (COTED) in his country's capital, Belize City, recently.
Noting that each CARICOM state is required to complete different legal, constitutional and administrative arrangements in order to ensure the successful establishment of the CCJ, he appealed to all stakeholders and especially to opposing parties across the Caribbean to come together in good faith to ensure that the noble task is completed, a press release from the CARICOM Secretariat stated.
"We are the architects of our common Caribbean destiny. CARICOM needs the CCJ now more than ever, let us not fail our peoples," the release quoted Musa as saying.
The gathering included President of the United Nations General Assembly and Chair of COTED, Julian Hunte; Secretary General of CARICOM, Dr Edwin Carrington; and Ambassador Richard Bernal, Director General, Regional Negotiating Machinery, as well as ministers of foreign trade and members of the diplomatic corps.
Musa, who is also Minister of National Development and the Public Service, also told them that "for us in Belize, our trade negotiating strategy is grounded in the Principle of Gradualism. We accept the inevitability of change. But change must serve the common good. Our small size, the nascency of our development, and our limited resource base all dictate that our insertion into the global economy must be gradual."
He contended that was also the CARICOM view, noting that the longstanding trade arrangements which the region had enjoyed should only be dismantled if the new arrangements allow it to continue to develop and increase the quality of life of its people.
"There is a view that some of the positions we have taken are intransigent. That view is erroneous," Musa declared, adding that their positions were principled and had been taken after careful study and advice. "We seek like all our trading partners to protect and advance our interests above all. At the same time however as responsible members of the world community we are prepared to be flexible."
While acknowledging that negotiations require compromises and flexibility makes success possible, he advised that as the region moves forward in trade negotiations, CARICOM should hold fast to one principle, the need for special and differential treatment.
He also observed that COTED has responsibility to fashion the region's stance in trade negotiations. "But in a very real sense," he continued, "we are here to work for the average Caribbean man and woman who slip from slumber at the crack of dawn to catch flying fish, to cut oranges, bananas or sugarcane, or to rake the seaweeds from our beaches. We are here in the name of Caribbean lawyers and doctors, the artists and the musicians, tour guides and hotel workers, the teachers and nurses, and the industrialists and merchants. For them we must ensure that trade offers an opportunity to make an honest and respectable living. We must ensure that they are able to educate their children, feed, clothe and house them. It is for them that COTED works."
Meanwhile, Carrington noted that COTED had as its main responsibility the establishment and functioning of the CARICOM Single Market and Economy (CSME). He recalled that it was there in Belize in 2002 at the Thirteenth Inter-Sessional Meeting of the Heads of Government that agreement was reached on a schedule for the removal of restrictions which envisaged a completion date beginning at the end of 2003 in the move to finally complete the removal of restrictions and establish the Single Market by the end of 2005.
There has been significant progress, Carrington noted, but there still remains enough unfinished business to cause disquiet.
"We have not met the important milestone of withdrawal of restrictions and this is a serious matter that goes to the heart of the issue of delivery of an early harvest to the people of the region," the CARICOM Secretary-General said.