PORT OF SPAIN, Trinidad - That Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar chose to characterise CARICOM’s talks with US Vice-President Joe Biden as “brutal” is probably indicative of more than a measure of resistance on the part of the US vice-president of the many demands made for American assistance and antagonistic follow-through by regional leaders.
As Vice-President Biden indicated, “island nations face special difficulties.” However, he noted that under the CBI, 85 per cent of the exports of CARICOM go into the US without tariffs. Further, under the new Trade and Investment Framework Agreement there will be US assistance to seed growth and development in the economies to be covered by this follow-up to the three-decades-old Caribbean Basin Initiative. 
However, CARICOM leaders should not miss Mr Biden’s point that they have to focus on the areas in which Washington would be willing to assist. The vice-president listed education, investment and co-operative efforts to bring down the cost of energy to member states of CARICOM. The regional leadership must come to an operational understanding of a world which has dramatically changed from the 1980s. Today globalisation and free trade are the driving forces of international relations.