Honourable Prime Minister of the Republic of Haiti, Jacques Edouard Alex
Vice President d la Cour de Cassation
Honourable Presidents of the Senate and Chamber of Deputies
Deputy Prime Minister of St. Vincent and the Grenadines, Sir Louis Straker
Members of the Cabinet of the Republic of Haiti
Other Honourable Ministers
Members of the Senate and Chamber of Deputies
Heads of Delegations and Representatives of Member States
Representatives of the Secretary-General of the United Nations
Members of the Diplomatic Corps
Representatives of the European Union and Heads of other Regional and International Organisations
Mayors of Port-au-Prince and Petionville
Representatives of the Media
Ladies and Gentlemen

Allow me to begin by conveying deepest sympathy to the Government and people of Haiti and particularly to the families who have suffered such tragic loss of life and property, in the recent floods. I am however heartened by the assurances I received from the Director of the Caribbean Disaster Emergency Response Agency (CDERA), Mr. Jeremy Collymore last night regarding the support which that Agency is providing to the Haitian people at this time.

Today, as the Caribbean, we gather here in Haiti for the Fifteenth Meeting of Ministers of the Caribbean Forum of the ACP States (CARIFORUM). When Haiti became a party to the third African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) Group of States and the European Community - the Lome Convention in 1990, Haiti took an important step in the right direction. When it became a member of the Caribbean Forum of the ACP States in 1992, Haiti took another step in the right direction. When it joined the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) in 1997, Haiti took the next logical step in Caribbean Integration and Development. And today, in hosting its first Meeting of Ministers of CARIFORUM – the Fifteenth Ministerial Meeting of CARIFORUM - Haiti is taking yet another historic step.

The holding of this Meeting in Haiti has special meaning for all of us, I am sure. For me as Secretary-General of CARIFORUM and CARICOM, it is a manifestation of my lifelong commitment to Haiti and a reaffirmation of my esteem of Haiti as a foundation member of the Caribbean family. For those of us who are visiting, in an important historical sense, we have all come home. I myself do so as frequently as I can. Indeed rather coincidentally, exactly one year ago today, I had the pleasure of being here as part of a CARICOM Heads of Government delegation led by the Honourable Doctor Denzil Douglas, Prime Minister of St. Kitts and Nevis and then Chairman of CARICOM.

Mr. Prime Minister, Honourable Ministers, distinguished delegates, as you are undoubtedly aware, this Fifteenth Meeting of Ministers of CARIFORUM takes place against the background of the intensification and finalisation of negotiations between CARIFORUM and the European Union (EU) for an Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA). Over the last three (3) weeks we have had several meetings on the EPA at various levels, involving our Heads of State and Government, our Ministers of Trade, the Regional Preparatory Task Force (RPTF) and our Technical Negotiators.

The EPA is a sign of things to come. It introduces the concept of reciprocity in trade relations between developing and developed countries. It imposes on inter-regional trade and economic relations, international norms and disciplines, which pose new threats and challenges - as well as offer fresh opportunities - to developing countries like ours in the Caribbean.

Our major concern in the Caribbean must be to ensure that adequate provisions are made in these emerging relationships and circumstances, to address the development needs of countries such as ours. At all cost we must avoid entering into “partnerships of unequals” with our developed country partners.

The Caribbean as we know faces many developmental challenges. It faces issues related to the competitive production and export of goods and services in the absence of preferences. It faces issues related to infrastructure necessary for the facilitation of our development. And most of all it faces issues related to the achievement and maintenance of an adequate standard and quality of life of its people. All of these challenges come in the context of trade globalization, loss of our historical trade preferences, increasing energy prices, higher global security demands and environmental degradation including global warming. Our resource constraints further serve to compound these development challenges.

But our Caribbean Region is not entirely without resources – in history, in culture and in diversity. It has given the world Nobel laureates, world famous academics, super athletes and great music. It is reasonably well endowed in natural resources – land, sea, a salubrious climate and most of all a highly talented and literate people. It therefore need not suffer unduly the vicissitudes of under-development and the pains of poverty.

Clearly however, we need to examine our current situation and determine our best path forward, to ensure a bright and sustainable future for all our people. It seems obvious to me that, for the Caribbean as a Region, that path is a joint one, wherein lies the means to maximise our collective strengths and minimise our common weaknesses.

To this end as a Region we must continue to deepen our integration and cooperation. Indeed, many a wise man has said we integrate or perish. Hence the drive towards our Single Market and Economy to which we expect Haiti to subscribe shortly. Meetings such as these, therefore, are a critical part of that process of confronting our development challenges through regional integration and cooperation. So also are the many other initiatives which our Heads of Government in CARICOM have embarked upon in search of closer relations among our Caribbean countries including closer relations between CARICOM and Dominican Republic. In this regard the task force mandated by Heads of Government to undertake this initiative is now being operationalised.

In a related CARIFORUM development the long-awaited merger of the CARICOM and CARIFORUM Secretariats has now taken place and we have with us here today at his first CARIFORUM Ministerial Meeting, the new Assistant Secretary-General CARIFORUM Mr. Willys Ramirez Diaz, a national of the Dominican Republic. We accord him a warm and fraternal welcome.

Over the next two days, as representatives of the people of the Caribbean, we will be dealing with issues related primarily to the most strategically important relationship of the CARIFORUM Region, that is, our relationship with the European Union. Two elements of that relationship will occupy us at this meeting. Apart from the EPA, now being negotiated, and to which I have referred earlier, there is the European Development Fund (EDF). We will be assessing how the resources of the 9th EDF are being utilised as well as examining how the resources being made available to CARIFORUM under the 10th EDF will be apportioned.

Ladies and Gentlemen, the sense of history which pervades the occasion of this Meeting extends beyond it being held in Haiti. Also before us is an historical request by the French Overseas Departments of Martinique and Guadeloupe for Associate Membership of the Caribbean Forum of ACP States (CARIFORUM). Can this be merely coincidental that the discussion of such a request is to take place in Haiti, and at a time when as a group, our perception is being reinforced that regional integration and cooperation are the only means through which we of the Caribbean can survive in a changing world?

The time and place of this request is truly in consonance with the leadership role that Haiti has played in so much of our Caribbean history. Emerging this week from Haiti therefore is a new message to the world – a message of the reaffirmation of Haiti’s historical primacy in the Caribbean – a message of its future in the Caribbean - a future which through its increasing stability portends great promise. That message will serve as a beacon to CARIFORUM and to CARICOM as the latter reopens its Representation Office here in Port-au-Prince, tomorrow, 19 October with the kind support of the Canadian Government.

Honourable Ministers of CARIFORUM, other Heads of CARIFORUM delegations, representatives of Regional Organisations and other visiting participants, in closing, I wish on behalf of all of us, to thank the Government and people of Haiti for the excellent arrangements made for this Meeting and for the warm welcome and the wonderful hospitality we have received, may I say, in coming home.

Contact: piu@caricom.org