PRESIDENT HIPOLITO MEJIA RECEIVES HIGH LEVEL CARICOM DELEGATION

His Excellency President Hipolito Mejia today received a High-Level Mission from the Caribbean Community (CARICOM). The Mission emanated from the decision taken at the recent CARICOM Emergency Heads of Government Meeting in The Bahamas, called to respond to the fall-out for the Region from the September 11^th events in the United States.

The Mission, which was led by the Hon. Billie Miller, Deputy Prime Minister of Barbados and included Mr. Edwin Carrington, Secretary-General of CARICOM and CARIFORUM, and Mr. David Hales, a senior official of the CARICOM Secretariat, came to the Dominican Republic to discuss certain urgent issues of mutual interest, primarily relating to the implementation of the CARICOM- Dominican Republic Free Trade Agreement and the functioning of the Regional Negotiating Machinery.

The Mission held consultations with the Dominican Republic's Minister of Foreign Affairs, the Hon. Hugo Tolentino Dipp and the Minister in charge of ACP-EU Relations, the Hon. Manuel Caceres Troncoso, before meeting with His Excellency President Hipolito Mejia. The discussions with President Mejia resulted in certain assurances leading to the resolution of key outstanding issues. A major result is that the CARICOM - Dominican Republic Free Trade Agreement would now enter into force provisionally on 1 December 2001 between the Dominican Republic on one hand , and Barbados, Jamaica, Trinidad and Tobago and the CARICOM Less Developed Countries (LDCs), on the other. On completing their internal procedures, the other CARICOM countries will enter the process.

The First Meeting of the Joint Council under the Agreement is being proposed for mid-January 2002.

The Mission took the opportunity to convey the condolences of the Governments and people of the Caribbean Community to the Government and people of the Dominican Republic on the passing of former President Professor Juan Bosch.