Heads of Government of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) gathered in Roseau, Dominica on Thursday for the organization’s 21st Intersessional Meeting. The agenda to be discussed in the two day (March 11 and 12th) meeting include the Haiti and the Community’s continued support following the January 12 earthquake; the Region’s response to the global economic and financial crisis, water shortage in the region and the status of the outstanding matter of the CARICOM Single Market and Economy (CSME). 

The meeting was convened, and will be chaired by Dominica’s Prime Minister Roosevelt Skerrit, and will be attended by at least thirteen Heads of Caribbean Government. It is not certain if Haiti President René Préval, who met with U.S. President at the White House in Washington D.C. on Wednesday, will be attending the meeting. However, it is understand that a leading member of the Haitian government will attend.  

Caribbean governments are concerned about the relief and reconstruction efforts required in Haiti, a member of CARICOM. The Community’s prompt response to the disaster was led by Jamaica, which is the sub-regional focal point for the area including Haiti under the Caribbean Disaster Emergency Management Agency (CDEMA) arrangements.  

CARICOM’s primary focus in Haiti is health. The Community’s Health Initiative involves providing some 14 health personnel to be rotated initially every 14 days. The Community has lent tangible assistance in other areas such as providing relief supplies, conducting relief supply operations and mobilizing resources with some US$9.4M pledged to date.  CARICOM has relocated its mission to Leogane, a town on the outskirts of Port-au-Prince. 

The leaders will discuss water resources within the Community under the broader heading of `Critical issues in the development of the Community’. 

The agricultural sector, a key resource in many Member States, has been hard hit by the prolonged dry season in countries including Barbados, Dominica, Grenada, Guyana, Jamaica, St Lucia, St. Vincent and the Grenadines and Trinidad and Tobago – all of which are reporting abnormally dry conditions. 

With water conservation plans in place in some Member States and resources allocated to alleviate the effects of the drought, CARICOM governments are encouraging conservation. El Nino, the weather phenomenon, has been blamed for the extended dry spell. Consideration will also be given to climate change in the context of the Region’s follow-up action to the Copenhagen Summit held last December 2009. 

The Head of the leading multinational agencies, the World Bank, The Inter-American Development Bank, and the International Monetary Fund, providing financial assistance to the Caribbean have been invited to the regional meeting. 

Edwin Carrington, Secretary General of CARICOM said last week

CARICOM will seek to articulate its positions on the major challenges it faces when it holds talks with the heads of the multi-laterals. Carrington is anticipating the discussions will result in the identification of new and viable approaches to the treatment of some of the major challenges of the Community including the crippling debt burden being carried by Member States which do not now qualify for concessionary debt reduction following their graduation from middle income status. 

The Heads of Government will also hold discussions with Jose Miguel Insulza, Secretary General of the Organization of American States. 

Key matters related to external trade that the Meeting will address include the negotiations for a CARICOM-Canada Trade and Development Agreement; the status of implementation of the CARIFORUM-EC Economic Partnership Agreement and the renewal of the Caribbean Basin Trade Partnership Act. 

The meeting will also consider follow-up to and preparations for upcoming summits including a CARICOM-Brazil Summit in April.

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GOLDING SAYS U.S. EVIDENCE AGAINST 'DUDUS' OBTAINED ILLEGALLY

The prime minister on Tue sday responded to a damning report from the U.S. Department of State, which called out the Jamaican government for stalling the extradition request.

Golding told Parliament that the annual International Narcotics Control Strategy Report “reflects negatively on the effectiveness of our efforts to combat organized crime, drug trafficking and corruptio n as well as the delays in enacting legislation to strengthen these efforts”.

The report released by the US Department of State on Monday, lambasted the Jamaican government stating that the treatment of request for Coke's extradition, made last August, “marked a dramatic change in (the Jamaican Government's) previous cooperation on extradition”.

But Golding said he was not ready to turn any Jamaican citizen over to a foreign body without a strong enough case, even though in this case it might be politically expedient.

“I am not defending the wrongdoing of any person but, if I have to pay a political price for it, I am going to uphold a position that constitutional rights do not begin at Liguanea”- the location of the U.S. Embassy in Kingston.

Arguing that this stance is not unique to Coke, a Jamaica Labor Party (JLP) supporter, Golding said if it were any other area leader, citing Matthews Lane strongman Zekes (Donald Phipps) a People’s National Party (PNP) supporter, he would do the same thing.

Golding asserted that the U.S. State Department did not do due diligence as “There were aspects of the case and the procedures employed that were abnormal…” He said, “the Government, consistent with the provisions of the Extradition Treaty, sought clarification and additional information” but these have not been submitted.

Golding said the government could not disregard the breaches in Coke’s case, since the way the U.S. government acquired the evidence was “highly irregular”.

However, the State Department called the claim ‘unfounded’. It said the extradition request was the subject of “unexplained disclosure of law enforcement information to the press, and unfounded allegations questioning the US’ compliance with the MLAT (Mutual Legal Assistance Treaty) and Jamaican law”.

Golding also jumped to the defense of justice minister, Dorothy Lightbourne, who has been sharply criticized for the delay in extraditing Coke, saying she has a duty to ensure that extradition procedures were in accordance with Jamaican law.

He said, “As minister, and, especially as attorney general, she cannot authorize processes which she knows to be in violation of Jamaican law.”

But, opposition member Dr. Peter Phillips, a former national security minister, has asked numerous times whether it was the job of the government to make such determination, or whether the appropriate route was for the Jamaican courts to determine the acquisition of the evidence against Coke.

Phillips asked, “Would it be more appropriately and transparently settled in a court of Jamaica rather than by a politically appointed minister (Lightbourne) who is going to be expressing a judgment on someone that is deemed, at least in the words of this report, as someone who is politically affiliated to the same party that she (the minister) is affiliated?”

Golding, however, is holding firm to his stance, despite its unpopularity in Jamaica and the Diaspora, since many believe Coke should be extradited and have a chance to defend himself in court.

How this will play out remains to be seen, since there are claims that a backlash from the U.S. government is to be expected if this standoff continues.

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Jamaica, an island rich with natural resources, may have another to add to its list, if oil and gas exploration prospects pan out the way officials are hoping.

The island formally offered 19 offshore and four onshore blocks for licensing for oil and gas exploration, at the launch of the Second Round bid, on Monday in London.

Jamaican officials are confident that with new seismic data showing very positive prospects, the country could, in the long term, become one of the region’s top oil producers.

Minister of State in the Ministry of Energy and Mining Laurence Broderick, who spoke at the launch, held at the Geological Society, emphasized that low energy cost is key to the country's industrial development, so the program to develop and expand renewable energy sources would continue at full speed.

“Presently, our dependence on oil leaves us at a highly disadvantageous position, in comparison with our competitors. The high cost (of electricity) to domestic customers and industry means that we are just not competitive,” he told JIS News in an interview.

The State Minister also participated in a seminar, under the theme: 'New Prospects and New Opportunities', which was put on by the Petroleum Corporation of Jamaica and Jamaica Trade and Invest.

The seminar was held to support the island's second formal licensing round for oil and gas exploration.

Consultant to the Petroleum Corporation of Jamaica (PCJ), Dr. Raymond Wright, said while the data for oil and gas exploration in Jamaica was positive, any benefits would come in the long term.

“We are talking about anything that could happen in 2015 and beyond. It's not next year, so we are really planning for the long term future,” he said.

Meanwhile, Mr. Broderick said that while renewable energy supplies would not account for more than 20 per cent of the country's overall energy needs, there is an on-going program to develop them.

“We have a couple of wind farms and we are seeking to establish more. With solar, we have not moved as fast because of the cost, but there are a number of companies that have expressed an interest and the pilot projects in hospitals are going well,” he pointed out.

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Finance minister and deputy leader, Audley Shaw, in addressing a party Area Council one meeting in Kingston on Sunday, gave strong indications that the party is already preparing for the next elections due in 2012.

Shaw said the JLP, which won the elections in September 2007, was faced with the mammoth task of bringing the country back from the brink that the People’s National Party (PNP) took it to, when they were in power from 1989 to 2007.

In fact, Shaw said, “We need more time to fix the problems facing the country,” – a theme the party will more than likely use in their campaign for re-election.

He said the PNP left the country “in such serious trouble that we can’t fix it in five years”. He called their 18-year run a period of mismanagement and pledged that from now until the next election he will work to ensure that Jamaicans “understand the full extent of the problem that we are facing".

Shaw, in boosting his party’s ability to find solutions said the PNP lacked the courage to come up with ideas that could help the country progress, reiterating that the JLP needs more time to fix the “problems are so vast, so wide, and so deep”.

He asked that Jamaicans remember what the JLP inherited, when they are making criticisms of the country’s current state of affairs.

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