Regional heads need
to prepare for Obama
MAHO--The Summit of the Americas in Trinidad, set for April, is the first and most important forum at which regional heads of governments will have an opportunity to collectively and decisively put their case forward on working with the new administration of US President-elect Barack Obama.
This was the advice from Barbados’ Dame Billie Miller, a retired politician and diplomat, to delegates at the 13th Annual Caribbean Multi-National Business Conference at Sonesta Maho Beach Resort that ended Sunday.
The Summit of the Americas will see a new US President, second-term Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper and several new government heads from around the region and Latin America.
The Caribbean is the United States’ main trading partner and the new administration needs to understand that this trade is more important than that of China and other Asian countries, Miller pointed out.
Talks on the Free Trade Areas of the Americas, while dormant for some time, are now very important and need to be taken up again by the new US administration, she added. Restarting this and tackling other issues of merit with the US cannot be done independently by each island/country heading to Washington D.C. to plead its case.
“We need to go as a region and speak with one voice. Don’t make the subjects too thin. Narrow it down and focus on whom your message is directed to,” Dame Miller advised.
She added that there had been an important movement in the Caribbean away from Washington, as more countries looked for ties with Europe. The region and Latin America are “pregnant with possibilities” that need to be exploited properly for the interest and benefit of its people, she said.
Government Heads need to stress to the new administration that the Caribbean is not “a third border” of the United States, but rather part of a good neighbourhood.
The Caribbean, in less than two generations and with little or no resources, has been able to give its population free education, health care from pre-natal to the grave, and has given rise to a “quiet social revolution” that has put much into its social capital, its people, despite being chided by international organisations such as the World Bank and International Monetary Fund (IMF) for this, Dame Miller said.
“We have a something to bring to the table when we speak to the new administration,” she stated.
US Congressman and Chairman of the Ways and Means Committee Charles Rangel was also keen on having the region state its case together and with one voice. He has been a strong advocate for better policies directed to the region, as well as better investments.
The region is well aware of what hard times are and how to weather these, and these skills and strengths can be shared with the new administration by the government leaders, advice President-elect Obama would find indispensable, Rangel said.
Rangel disclosed that Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice had indicated her willingness to him to sit with Caribbean leaders to talk about the bottlenecks encountered in trying to help the region and how to improve trade.
