“This meeting was timely and useful. We heard Director General Lamy’s perspectives on the current status of the negotiations, the obstacles that impede real progress and the way forward in the negotiations. The Caribbean used the opportunity to reiterate our priorities and articulate our key issues in the Doha Development Round of negotiations”.
CHRIST CHURCH, BARBADOS – Regional Prime Ministers are expected to convene in the inaugural Joint Meeting of the Prime Ministerial Sub-committee on External Trade Negotiations and CARICOM Single Market and Economy (CSME) on February 5-6 2007 in Montego Bay Jamaica. The agenda will be informed in part by the discussions of the preceding 20th Special Meeting of the Council for Trade and Economic Development on matters related to external negotiations.
Master of Ceremonies
His Excellency, Sir Cuthbert Sebastian, Governor General of St. Kitts and Nevis
His Excellency, Edwin W Carrington- Secretary-General of CARICOM
Hon. Dr. Denzil Douglas, Prime Minister of St. Kitts and Nevis and Chairman of the 27th CARICOM Heads of Government Conference
Hon. Patrick Manning, Prime Minister of Trinidad and Tobago and outgoing Chairman of the Conference
Colleague Prime Ministers and Heads
His Excellency Don McKinnon, Secretary-General of the Commonwealth
Members of the Diplomatic and Consular Corps
(CARICOM Secretariat, Turkeyen, Greater Georgetown, Guyana) Heads of Government of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) will be in Europe this week attending two Summit Meetings.
Seven of the leaders accompanied by Secretary-General of the Caribbean Community, His Excellency Edwin Carrington, will attend the Third CARICOM-Spain Summit in Madrid, Spain, on 10-11 May and the Fourth European Union (EU) – Latin American Caribbean (LAC) Summit in Vienna, Austria, on 12-13 May.
The engagement between PANCAP and the Donor Community carried several objectives.
(CARICOM Secretariat, Turkeyen, Greater Georgetown, Guyana) Jamaica’s Prime Minister the Most Hon. P. J. Patterson delivered a moving farewell speech this week, at the conclusion of the 18th meeting of the Prime Ministerial Sub-Committee on External Negotiations, which he has chaired for the past thirteen years. Prime Minister Patterson retires from active politics after over thirty years of service to the Caribbean Community. “It has been for me a great honour and privilege to chair this committee since it was first conceived in the Bahamas in 1993.
(CARICOM Secretariat, Turkeyen, Greater Georgetown, Guyana) Jamaica, on Tuesday at the Second Special Meeting of the Council for Finance and Planning (COFAP), joined Barbados and Trinidad and Tobago in making an initial pledge to the regional Development Fund. Barbados and Trinidad and Tobago had made initial pledges last December at the First Special Meeting of COFAP.
(CARICOM Secretariat, Turkeyen, Greater Georgetown, Guyana) The formal launch of the CARICOM Single Market on Monday 30 January in Kingston, Jamaica will signal a new beginning for CARICOM countries as the Region seeks to create a shared market space to secure its survival within the global sphere.
(CARICOM Secretariat, Greater Georgetown, Guyana) Six remaining Caribbean Community Member States have agreed to complete all arrangements and join the CARICOM Single Market by 31 March 2006.
(CARICOM Secretariat, Turkeyen, Greater Georgetown, Guyana) We are all privileged to meet in this bustling and fascinating host city - Hong Kong. I congratulate the Chair of this Conference and his able team for all the logistical and administrative arrangements, which have made our stay here enjoyable despite the hectic schedule. Jamaica is committed to trade liberalisation and to the World Trade Organisation. We will continue to work towards a successful Doha Round. Yet there is cause for concern.