CARICOM leaders to draft strategy for FTAA meeting in Miami

Friday, November 14, 2003

GEORGETOWN, Guyana (AFP): Caribbean leaders meeting in St. Lucia Thursday will begin preparations for a hemispheric free trade meeting in Miami later this month and kick off talks on a new system to govern the affairs of the 15-nation Caribbean Community (CARICOM), Guyana's Foreign Ministry said.

At their third meeting this year, CARICOM leaders were to receive recommendations from their trade ministers on preparations for the ministerial meeting of the Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA) in Miami November 20-21.

Regional preparations for the FTAA ministerial come several weeks after Brazil restated its opposition to a United States-dictated pace on hemispheric free trade, including Washington failure to state a position on the key issue of agricultural subsidies. 

Trinidad and Tobago Prime Minister Patrick Manning first made the suggestion of a new system of governance of the region to ensure that decisions taken by regional leaders and ministers are implemented. 

CARICOM leaders currently make up a quasi-cabinet on various areas of regional importance but there is no executive system such as the President of the European Parliament. 

With Caribbean trade ministers due to meet with Director General of the World Trade Organisation (WTO), Supachai Panitchpakti in Guyana later this month on the recently failed WTO meeting in Cancun, Mexico, the CARICOM headquarters said the leaders would discuss "possible paths for the region at the level of the WTO." 

The CARICOM leaders' meeting, which will be chaired by Jamaican Prime Minister Percival Patterson will also discuss strategies for the Special Summit of the Americas to be held January 12-13 in Mexico. 

CARICOM comprises 12 English-speaking independent former British colonies, one British colony, the French-creole speaking Haiti and the Dutch-speaking Suriname. 

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