Jamaica alarmed over Trinidad and Tobago's plans to join OECS
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| Published on Thursday, August 21, 2008 |
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By Oscar Ramjeet
Caribbean Net News Special Correspondent
Email: oscar@caribbeannetnews.com
PORT OF SPAIN, Trinidad: The Jamaican government is not happy that Trinidad and Tobago has signed an agreement to join the Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States (OECS).
In a statement, Prime Minister Bruce Golding said that the Jamaican government is concerned about the impact this could have on the future of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM)
Golding’s statement read: "The Government of Jamaica will request that the issue be brought for discussion at the highest level of CARICOM." It added that Jamaica's position will be evaluated based on those discussions.
And while Jamaica's statement was being circulated, it was reported in the Trinidad Express newspaper that Trinidad and Tobago Prime Minister Patrick Manning was flying to four countries on Wednesday to discuss with their heads of government the proposed political union.
In an interview with the Trinidad Express, however, CARICOM Secretary General Edwin Carrington said he believed the political union proposal now being pursued by Trinidad and Tobago and the OECS would actually help quicken the CARICOM integration initiative.
According to the Express, Jamaica is not one of the four Caribbean countries Manning will be flying to on Wednesday. He will stop off in Grenada, where its prime minister, Tillman Thomas, the OECS chairman, will join him on his trip to Dominica, St Kitts and Nevis, and Antigua and Barbuda.
Dominica, St Kitts and Nevis, and Antigua and Barbuda were not represented at last Thursday's meeting when a Memorandum of Understanding agreeing to pursue an economic union was signed by Ralph Gonsalves of St Vincent and the Grenadines, Stevenson King of St Lucia, Tillman Thomas of Grenada and Trinidad's Prime Minister, Patrick Manning.
Trinidad and Tobago and eight of the nine OECS countries, however, all belong to CARICOM, which is seeking to establish a single economy by 2015.
According to Golding's statement, while the government of Jamaica respects the right of the ten CARICOM countries to pursue such an initiative, "a political union has implications for the structure and indeed the future of CARICOM." | | | | Reads : 438 | | | |
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