Ministers,
Colleagues from Member States and Regional institutions and associations
Staff of the Secretariat,
Members of the press

I wish you Good Morning, a very productive and healthy New Year. This is our first CARICOM Meeting for the year, indeed for the century, and this gives us a good opportunity to make the beginning which we would wish to have continue. As we consider new beginnings we can take the opportunity of leaving behind the baggage which might have been impeding our progress and go forward with the best we are able to cull from what we have been doing.

In this regard, I cannot help but express the satisfaction which I experienced this week when, thanks to the efforts of Heads of Government, the representatives of the OECD and indeed the international community came to the Region, specifically Barbados, and sat down and discussed with CARICOM and other tax jurisdictions, the OECD's unilateral initiative which has been the cause of so much injury to our countries. The lesson was clear, we may be small but we are significant as long as ours is a just cause, and we fight it together and well. We wish to place on record our appreciation to those who have led the way including the Hon. Prime Minister of Barbados and others.

Ladies and gentlemen, the establishment of a viable and vibrant Single Market and Economy continues to be the Community's primary objective. Fortunately we are starting off this new period with the benefit of having had a major Regional Consultation on the CSME including civil society less than two months ago. The recommendations from that encounter can now serve us in good stead to ensure that the path we follow from here on is informed by the views and interests of the various sectors and segments of our populations which are the beneficiaries of these initiatives.

The Agenda before this Tenth Meeting of the Council for Trade and Economic Development is reflective of the varying and numerous developments in and outside the Community affecting Member States. I understand we must have hit a new record with the number of issues and therefore the number of technical papers we have had to consider at any one meeting. I also understand that every effort was made - unsuccessfully - to weed out less important issues given the length of the Agenda. However, it seems that there was just nothing on the Agenda which at this point could be said to be irrelevant, unimportant or postponeable.

What this is saying to us is that the number of issues with which we have to contend are very many. It is also saying that the call on our resources - financial and human resources and time - will be considerable. This will mean that our management of the process will have to be very efficient and the necessary and adequate support systems put in place.

The Agenda before us is therefore wide ranging with a particular focus on our external economic and trade relations particularly our negotiating arrangements, for which latter, the responsibility has been given by our Heads of Government to the Regional Negotiating Machinery under the leadership of Sir Shridath Ramphal. In this area, Ministers have for their consideration, matters relating to the WTO, the Cotonou Partnership Agreement which has replaced Lomé, the FTAA, to our bilateral agreements with Cuba, the Dominican Republic, Venezuela and Canada and to the RNM itself.

The implementation of the CARICOM Single Market and Economy (CSME) is of course a central item with the focus, on this occasion on the implementation of Protocol II and the establishment of the programmes for the removal of restrictions on the Right of Establishment, the Provision of Services and the Movement of Capital. Always of importance to Member States are the matters relating to intra-regional trade in goods, the operation of the CET and the Rules of Origin, the removal of restrictions and the establishment of Standards. Newer issues relating to services, intellectual property, e-commerce and government procurement are increasingly appearing on our Agendas.

These however, do not replace what has been our bread and butter traditionals like agriculture, in this case the institutional arrangements for the fisheries sub-sector.

Ministers, colleagues, our officials have spent three full days considering the issues and developing recommendations. Our task now over the next two days has therefore been made that much easier and I expect that it will be possible to complete our work successfully.

This Meeting of the COTED is being followed during this month by meetings of the Council for Finance and Planning in Belize on 22 January, of the Community Council on 29-30 January and the Sub-Committee of the Council for Human and Social Development, not to forget the meeting of the Budget Committee which latter will determine the resources which will be available to the Secretariat to carry out its mandates. These meetings are all preparatory to the Twelfth Inter-Sessional Meeting of the Conference in Barbados on 14-16 February 2001. It is therefore imperative that this Meeting of the COTED make a signal start to the millennium and the upcoming series of Meetings, and I look forward to a productive two days of meetings to that end.