Caricom still strong, admired for its work – Grenadian Minister Karl Hood

Jun 03, 2011 News

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Grenada’s Minister of Foreign Affairs, Foreign Trade, Export Development and the Environment, Karl Hood

…but poor attendance at key meetings disappointing

The Caribbean Community (Caricom) continues to be a strong regional organization bent on integration of its member nations, and is admired by entities outside the Caribbean for the work it does.
This notion was expressed by Grenada’s Minister of Foreign Affairs, Foreign Trade, Export Development and the Environment, Karl Hood, on Wednesday, as he briefed members of the media on discussions of the Caricom Council of Ministers.
The 28th Meeting of the Community Council of Ministers was held Wednesday at the Caricom headquarters in Turkeyen, where an agenda was prepared for the heads of government summit that is held annually in July.
According to the Secretariat, topics discussed were ongoing developments within the four pillars of Caricom: human and social development, foreign policy coordination and community, trade and economic development, and security; and issues pertaining to governance, and the Caricom and Caribbean Forum for African, Caribbean and Pacific States (CARIFORUM).
The Council’s recommended agenda will now be sent to regional heads of government for their approval before it becomes the official schedule of next month’s summit.
Minister Hood briefed the media as discussions in the Council were ongoing. His assurance of the regional body’s strength and continued work towards integration of people of the Caribbean comes against the backdrop of a scheduled special meeting of the Council for Trade and Economic Development (COTED) to discuss an information and communication strategy for the region being downgraded into a gathering of regional officials, because enough ministers of member governments did not turn up at the confab to represent a quorum.
The COTED meeting, held in Grenada on 27 May, required at least eight ministers in attendance to constitute a quorum, but only four out of the 15-member grouping attended.
The planned meeting was scheduled to make decisions on taking the Caribbean forward, as the region seeks to embrace information and communication technology as part of the drive to create a Caribbean Single Market and Economy. These decisions were supposed to be forwarded to the heads of government at their summit for action. Owing to it not being an official meeting, however, only recommendations could have been made.
The Council meeting on Wednesday appears to have just managed a quorum of eight, as exactly that number of ministers attended. This is the second highest Caricom forum behind the heads of government summit.
“We were not happy that we did not have the full complement of people in Grenada,” Mr Hood stated. “Yes, we are disappointed … but that did not deter those who were there from having meaningful discussions.”
In spite of the low turnout of government ministers at these two important Caricom meetings, the minister stoutly defended the regional body against suggestions that the movement may be losing some pace.
“I want to put that to rest. We want to believe that Caricom is a body that is essential to the region,” he said.
But Minister Hood’s assurances came after recent implorations by a number of Caribbean officials that the regional body faces dire consequences if meetings are not seen as meaningful and decisions taken acted upon.
Most recently, at the COTED gathering to discuss an Information and Communication Technology (ICT) strategy for the region, Grenada Prime Minister, Tillman Thomas, advised that if the ministers do not develop a more serious approach to ICT, Caricom’s credibility as a regional bloc would be questioned, “not just by the rest of the world, but by our own people”.
He added, “Our people cannot afford leadership that is tentative and unstable. We have been talking long enough. It’s now time to act,”
At that same gathering in Grenada, Barbados’ Minister of Commerce and Trade, Haynesley Benn, warned: “Failure to make concrete decisions about ICT as well as other areas – at this juncture of our regional history – could have adverse effects on the regional integration and the implementation of the Caricom Single Market and Economy… The people of the region will be watching and waiting for the results emanating from this meeting and depending on us to produce tangible results. Let us not disappoint them.”
At another COTED meeting, held on 19 May in Guyana, Acting Caricom Secretary-General, Lolita Applewhaite, had stressed that, “these discussions are taking place in an environment in which the relevance of our integration movement is being increasingly questioned”.

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