Caricom Secretary General Irwin LaRocque has expressed the bloc’s interest in the renewal of legislation for the extension of the Caribbean Basin Trade Partnership Act (CBTPA) and the World Trade Organisation (WTO) waiver beyond December 2019 to allow continued duty-free access to the US market.
The Secretary General made the case as he accredited the new US envoy to Caricom, Sarah-Ann Lynch, at the Secretariat’s Headquarters in Georgetown, Guyana on Tuesday. He said the Region also welcomed greater flows of US investments in agriculture, tourism, and transportation.
Ambassador LaRocque underscored the importance of cooperation in clean and renewable energy, and in security amidst increasing security threats in the current global environment. In that context, he said Caricom looked forward to collaborating with the United States at the US-Caribbean Security Cooperation Commission in Barbados, and at the Eighth Caribbean-US High-Level Dialogue in Washington next month.
He told Ambassador Lynch that her country should now be more sensitive to Caricom’s concerns about black-listing by the European Union, since the US recently experienced that action itself.
“As we seek to diversify our economies through services, some of our Member States which have developed their financial services sector have been labelled as non-cooperative tax jurisdictions. This is so despite the fact that the countries in question are not designated by the relevant regulatory authorities, such as the Financial Action Task Force and the OECD [Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development] Global Forum,” the SG said.
“Blacklisted jurisdictions face major reputational damage which has an adverse effect, demonstrated by the “de-risking” strategies of international banks resulting in the withdrawal of crucial correspondent banking relationships. This development has had an impact on investment flows, on trade and on the financial operations of our economies, not to mention impeding the flow of remittances sent by Caribbean nationals living abroad. The US itself has the experience of being recently blacklisted and would, therefore, be now more sensitive to our situation,” Secretary General LaRocque stated.
The US envoy in her remarks lauded the structures of Caricom integration which have “successfully dismantled barriers to fair trade, and created the formidable Caribbean Court of Justice”.
Caricom has “impressively coordinated collective approaches to education, public health, disaster response, and development financing”, Ambassador Lynch, who is also the US envoy to Guyana, said. She added that the US was proud to continue to support the work of Caricom and envisioned a Community that was “an innovative and competitive force in the world’s economy”.
The new envoy noted that US supported and encouraged the single economic space of the Caricom Single Market and Economy (CSME).
“With this economic integration, we have already seen new opportunities to attract investment and increase economies of scale. We expect to witness an even greater boost in trade, as well as an increased respect for intellectual property rights and consumer protection regulations.”
“We also envision a populace in which every citizen has the opportunity to realise their potential, and contribute to economic, social, and cultural prosperity for themselves and for their society,” the envoy stated.
She said as the USA strengthened its cooperation with the Region, its Caribbean 2020 strategy provided a framework for focusing US interagency efforts on security, diplomacy, prosperity, energy, education, and health.
She lauded the successes of the Caribbean Basin Security Initiative (CBSI), which has boosted the capabilities of Caribbean law enforcement and security forces to deter violent crime, reduce the rate of organised crime, and curb illicit narcotics and weapons trafficking.
