CARICOM Meeting Closes On High Note For Belize

When we left you last night - the CARICOM leaders were having their closing press conference at the purpose built West Room at the Grande Caribe resort.

That's where the leaders outlined the major initiatives coming out of their two days of meetings.

Jules Vasquez was there - and here's his recap:

At its closing, Chairman of the 33rd Inter-sessional Prime Minister John Briceno outlined the major initiatives coming out of the meeting.

The most intriguing is the Agri-Food program introduced by Guyanese President Irfaan Ali - a sweeping review of CARICOM agricultural productivity, and potential:

Hon. John Briceno - Prime Minister
"They did an entire study from the different counties in CARICOM looking at the products we can grow and putting it in a matrix where there are certain advantages we may have and the idea is that we can try to grow more of what we eat. For example, we import poultry, there is now need for us to import poultry, or some of the grains like corn and beans, the different meats, all of that an be grown here in the Caribbean and Belize certainly is no exception."

Mia Mottley - Prime Minister, Barbados
"We really as a region need to recognize that food and water are becoming the new oil and that we needed to be able to reduce the volume of imports while at the same time increasing the opportunities for our agricultural sector, our farmers in particular but at the same time, seeking to do two other things. One, reduce the cost of food and two, encourage our people to eat more locally grown food. Broadly speaking we recognize that we can be self sufficient in poultry in the region - we're importing just over 200 million dollars in poultry a year, two we recognize that we can also seek to position ourselves by 2025 to be self sufficient in the feed-stock for poultry while still having the capacity to export and to that extent the government of Guyana, President Ali was able to make the point that 2,500 hectare would be needed to be dedicated to corn and soy production and if we can do throughout the region, not just Guyana, Guyana is more than willing but Suriname, Belize, Jamaica in particular and then in addition to that he then took three products for which there is potential value added, there is a lot of Pam oil for example imported into the region but there is no reason why we shouldn't be using coconut oil, which in any event has particular health benefits and we looked at two other items where the value added can be there so you're not only looking at your basics but those things that have value added."

And that brings us to the deathless talk - only three decades and counting - of a functional trading bloc known as the Caricom Single Market and Economy:

Hon. John Briceno
"More than ever I believe that because of the shocks that we've been getting I believe that now there is a renewed commitment to the single market integration in the Caribbean."

Jules Vasquez
"How do we make the tariffs functional, so that we can create a market place for our products to truly move freely and more cheaply across borders?"

Hon. John Briceno
"That's something that has to start with us as heads, today all heads made a commitment once again to be able to try to move that integration even more - faster, because we are realizing that by doing that, our people benefit and we also have to appeal to the private sector in our individual countries."

Underpinning this urgency is a plan - also spearheaded by Guyana - to bolster investment in agriculture:

Hon. John Briceno
"President Ali has spoken to several institutions certainly CDB is one of them and also to the Republic Bank in Trinidad and they have already indicated that they are prepared to make a sizeable amount of money in the millions available at very low concessionary rates between 2 to 2 1/2 percent for farmers in the region."

Mia Mottley
"The money from republic government is being offered to government to help farmers and in some instances will be state led in others will be private sector led. In addition, the Caribbean private sector organization made a presentation looking at the poultry sector in particular and recognizing the opportunities there, so we hope that the regional private sector will also come to the table ready to make the decisions for investment."

All this forward looking talk is not so much about expansionism as it is about survival and recovery from a history of dispossession:

Mia Mottley
"And let us be very clear, we in the region have increased our debt largely as a result of us fighting this climate crisis, it has therefore left us less capable of absorbing the shocks with respect to this war in Ukraine, that we might otherwise be. Therefore it is critical for us to raise with the international financial institutions and with the G20 countries the extent to which the climate crisis has literally derailed us from our development trajectory and particular the pursuit and of the sustainable development goals."

And reparatory justice is also a part of the conversation. Heads of government have drafted a letter to send to their former colonizers. Prime Minister Mottley spoke of the receptions the last time such a letter was written in 20i6

Mia Mottley
"There was not an acknowledgement of the need for reparations since then we've had the George Floyd and Black Lives Matter, we've had a recognition by the global population, especially younger people that there's a need for climate justice - we're dealing with a world that generally that is intolerant of the kind of inequity and poverty and discrimination that has come to characterize too much of the last 3 - 4 decades in particular of global activity and development. We had no development combat given to us at the point of independence. But there was a compensation package for those who were slave owners there was. A further package for the apprenticeship system I think that my officials and advisors count it at about 20 million pounds for the British planters who had slaves and another 27 million pounds as a result of the apprenticeship system, so that 47 million pounds was given in the middle of the 19th century. Fast forward now, 130 to Jamaica becoming independent, Trinidad becoming independent, Guyana becoming independent, Barbados and we go down the line. None of us were given a development compact. We had to start providing for our people without the benefit of any source of development funding. We had to deal with lack of housing, lack of educational opportunities, lack of health care facilities and we had to do this in spite of the fact that substantial wealth was extracted from our countries for centuries, in spite of the fact that substantial wealth was extracted not only by the governments but also by the private players who were the owners of the plantations or enterprises doing business and trade in our part of the world. Whether we like it or not, it is regrettable that the region in which we belong, effectively was the modern crucible for racism in the Americans and in the western world and this is where it played out and that is why on Sunday I made the point that we cannot be content to be the staging ground in the Caribbean for anybody's battles and that is why the Caribbean must always remain a zone of peace going forward because we've already been that staging ground for centuries."

Channel 7

Two days of discussions between CARICOM Heads of Government concluded with a press conference on Wednesday evening. The conference was led by Belize's Prime Minister John Briceno, CARICOM Secretary General Carla Barnett, Prime Minister Mia Mottley the Prime Minister of Barbados, and the President of Suriname, Chandrikapersad Santokhi.