Commentary: Tony Blair and the Caribbean
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| Published on Saturday, May 19, 2007 |
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By Sir Ronald Sanders
In the public mind, the overriding assessment of the interest shown by British Prime Minister, Tony Blair, in the Caribbean is probably that he chose Barbados for vacations with his family.
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Sir Ronald Sanders is a business
executive and former Caribbean
diplomat who publishes widely
on small states in the global
community. Reponses to:
ronaldsanders29@hotmail.com |
It would not be a fair or wholly comprehensive assessment.
Blair did try to be helpful to the region but it has to be recalled that on trade matters, the UK’s membership of the European Union (EU) severely limits its scope for individual action. The EU speaks for all of its 25 member countries.
Further, during the Blair years, issues affecting vital Caribbean exports – bananas and sugar in particular – became subject to World Trade Organisation (WTO) rules as other countries challenged the preferential terms under which these Caribbean exports entered the EU market. There was nothing that the British government could do to influence decisions of WTO panels.
But, the Blair government did agree to establish structures to improve communication and consultation between itself and Caribbean governments. No previous British government had done so.
As Blair prepares to leave office in June, there are lessons to be learned by Caribbean governments in their dealings with the British administration and new actions that they might consider taking to bolster the relationship.
Unquestionably, when he came to office in 1997, Tony Blair was concerned with domestic issues and with the larger international canvas, particularly Britain’s place in the EU.
The Caribbean was of little interest to him. This was obvious in two early instances: first, he failed to meet formally with Caribbean leaders in the margins of the Commonwealth Heads of Government conference which his government hosted within months of assuming office. Then, he could not find time to meet the then Prime Minister of Jamaica, P J Patterson, when he visited Britain.
Caribbean High Commissioners in London – of whom I was one at the time – and British parliamentarians of Caribbean origin let it be known in clear terms that they and Caribbean governments were very annoyed over what appeared to be a downgrading of the Caribbean relationship.
Mr Blair is nothing if not a consummate politician. Recognising that the Caribbean vote in the UK was critical to some marginal seats, and that those voters might become upset with the Labour Party which the majority traditionally supported, he responded positively to the suggestion that a UK/Caribbean Forum be established under which the British and Caribbean Foreign Ministers would meet every two years to consult and take action on mutually agreed matters.
Later, he agreed that in the years in between the meeting of Foreign Ministers, the British and Caribbean Heads of Government would meet around the time of Commonwealth Heads of Government Conferences. He has been faithful to the commitment to hold these meetings, and the UK/Caribbean Forum has met religiously every two years since 1998.
Ironically, on the very day that UK and Caribbean officials met to make further proposals to deepen the institutionalised relationship between the UK and the Caribbean, an event took place in New York that would engage a great deal of Mr Blair’s attention and, ultimately, lead to loss of support for him in Britain.
I was among a group of British and Caribbean officials who met at the British High Commissioners residence in Barbados on the morning of September 11th 2001 as terrorists flew two hijacked airplanes into the twin towers in New York, beginning the saga that led to the invasion of Iraq and what is called “the war on terror”.
The bewildered officials, who together watched the dreadful scene on television and worried about what sort of new world had suddenly been fashioned, somehow managed to agree a means by which the British and Caribbean Heads of Government could communicate directly with each other prior to multilateral meetings to advance the concerns of each other. These included meetings of the EU and the G7.
It has to be said that the Caribbean enjoys no such structured and predictable relationship with any other country, and the UK has no such relationship with any other region in the developing world. And, they were formed under Tony Blair’s watch.
Additionally, the British government established in London a Caribbean Advisory Group – subsequently re-named the Caribbean Board – made up of persons with Caribbean and British experience to advise the UK government, through the Foreign Office, on matters related to the Caribbean area and the Diaspora in the UK. Again, as pointed out by Dr Peter Clegg, a UK academic with considerable knowledge of the region, “there is no other region-specific advisory group” in the FCO.
These, then, were opportunities and structures for the Caribbean to influence British government policy that were created under Tony Blair’s premiership. And, where he gave undertakings to lobby for the Caribbean – as he did on the level of compensation payable by the EU to the Caribbean after the price paid for sugar was reduced – he fulfilled his promise.
At a very personal level, he committed to holding a Caribbean Investment Conference in London which he opened along with Barbados Prime Minister, Owen Arthur, in November last year. If the Conference failed to deliver on its potential, this was not due to lack of British government effort but to poor attendance by Caribbean governments (only Antigua, Barbados, Belize and Guyana sent Ministers).
So, even despite the considerable and fatal engagement with Iraq that followed 9/11 and his personal involvement with President George W Bush in this tragic episode, Mr Blair did find time for the Caribbean.
The agenda of the engagement, in my view, has been far too one-sided. The UK/Caribbean forum has focussed a disproportionate attention on drug trafficking and security issues. This is not to say that though these issues are important to the UK, they are not important to the Caribbean – they are, but more so are the development issues especially human resource development, funds to help in changing the structures of economies and infrastructural development.
However, it is the Caribbean that should have done more to forcefully advance its own cause through the submission of well researched and intellectually rigorous papers.
The problem the region faces is that its trade with Britain is almost of no importance to the UK economy – UK exports to the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) countries is 0.5% of its total exports and its imports from CARICOM are 0.2% of its total imports.
What is more, apart from drug trafficking and illegal immigration, the Caribbean holds only three potential interests for Britain which the Caribbean has not exploited. These are: Caribbean voters in the UK and their potential impact on British elections; the safety of the region as a destination for UK tourists; and the alliances that Caribbean countries develop with countries that might worry the EU or the EU/US alliance.
The Caribbean should develop positions and implementable policies on these issues with which they could engage the British government.
Tony Blair did make an effort for the Caribbean despite his wider preoccupations; the Caribbean may not have done enough to take advantage of the opportunities it was given. More should now be done as the reins of power change hands in Britain. | | | | Reads : 160 | | | |
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