CARIBBEAN

The Black Caucus and Caribbean Government ministers talk about Caribbean.

NASSAU, Bahamas (NNPA) - With their backs against a financial wall as they strive to meet U.S. and international security measures, and with global and Hemispheric trade talks threatening the region’s economic stability, the U.S. Congress may be asked to open hearings on the situation in the Caribbean.

The requests for hearings by Congressional panels are expected to come from members of the Congressional Black Caucus and the bipartisan group of Friends of the Caribbean on Capitol Hill.

After sessions involving several members of the Black Caucus, Caribbean Government ministers, Caricom Secretary-General Edwin Carrington, business executives and elected representatives at the state and local government levels in the U.S., members of the House of Representatives said that it was clear that, because the interests of the U.S. and the Caribbean were intricately interwoven, every attempt—including Congressional hearings—should be considered to focus attention on the Caribbean.

"I believe we can hold hearings so that Caribbean nations, leaders of government can come and present to us what the issue of security and terrorism has generated," said Sheila Jackson Lee (D-Texas), who sits on the Congressional panel that monitors Inland Security, after attending the recent Carib News multi-National Business conference in the Bahamas. "We must look at how we can help alleviate some of these problems confronting the Caribbean in the areas of security, terrorism, trade, tourism—to mention a few."

Rep. Jackson-Lee, whose family roots can be traced to Jamaica, described the conference as an outstanding success, because it not only helped to focus attention on business and investment in the Caribbean, but it gave members of the U.S. Congress and other elected officials an opportunity to share ideas on matters of mutual interest.

Congressman Donald Payne, co-chairman of the Congressional Friends of the Caribbean on Capitol Hill in Washington, said that the economic challenges now confronting the Caribbean—as the negotiations for the Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA) were moving towards a 2005 deadline—were serious enough to merit Congressional hearings.

"There are opportunities for the Caribbean to outline its problems to members of Congress, but it may very well take some special hearings by a Congressional committee to bring the issues to the members of the House," he said after participating in a meeting devoted to the FTAA negotiations.

During the 90-minute session, Caricom Secretary-General Edwin Carrington; Billie Miller, Barbados’ Foreign Minister and Minister of Foreign Trade; and Leslie Miller, the Bahamas Minister of Trade, said that the World Trade Organization’s negotiations and requirements along with the proposals for the FTAA could end up reducing government revenues at a time when the new security measures required at the airports and harbors throughout the Caribbean required vast expenditures.

"We have to spend large sums of money in order to satisfy international requirements and that would mean taking funds from one area to put into another," said the Bahamas minister.

On the question of trade negotiations, the Barbados Foreign Minister told the members of Congress that Caricom states were still awaiting "concrete responses to their call for special and differential treatment for the small economies in both the WTO and the FTAA negotiations."

Tony Best
The Carib News

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