On behalf of the Government and People of St. Vincent and the Grenadines, and on my own behalf, I welcome the distinguished Heads of State and Government, the esteemed Heads of International and regional organsations, and their respective delegations, and all other invited guests to St. Vincent and the Grenadines, a fountain head of regional integration from which the unpolluted streams of Caribbean unity flows.

I embrace most specially Sir John Compton, the Prime Minister of St. Lucia, who has returned to us at the head table of CARICOM to break bread and give us of his wisdom in the true spirit of our Caribbean Community. I congratulate him yet again on his recent impressive victory at the polls. At the same time, we all thank his immediate predecessor, Dr. Kenny Anthony, for his outstanding contribution to CARICOM and regionalism. St. Lucia has always been a steadfast beacon which shines the illuminating pathway of regional integration.

I congratulate, too, the Premier of Turks and Caicos whose re-election has further strengthened the cause of regional unity.

The out-going Chairman of CARICOM, Dr. The Honourable Denzil Douglas of St. Kitts and Nevis, has provided us with excellent and focused leadership. We thank him most sincerely for his continuing toil of joy in the vineyard of our Caribbean Community. I am hopeful that when I pass the baton to my successor, the Rt. Honourable Owen Arthur of Barbados, on July 1, 2007, the state of our regional affairs would be in a good and even more improved condition. I have been working very closely with the esteemed Prime Minister of Barbados and intend to so continue, thus securing a seamless and veritably joint Chairmanship up to the end of 2007. This is as it ought always to be.

Mr. Chairman, St. Vincent and the Grenadines has been fortunate to have produced on an on-going basis leaders who are deeply and passionately committed to the regional enterprise. The people’s tribune for the years 1935 to 1950, the revered and noble George Augustus Mc Intosh, placed Caribbean Unity at the core of his political praxis. And the people supported him accordingly. The titans of the succeeding epochs, Ebenezer Theodore Joshua, Robert Milton Cato, and James Fitz-Allan Mitchell, all hitched their political wagons steadfastly to the enduring regional buckle. These are the ties that bind; and I am duty bound to build upon their legacy, in the interest of our people’s humanisation.

St. Vincent and the Grenadines, to which I welcome you all, is a magnificent component of our unique, legitimate, and virtuous Caribbean civilisation. This nation, which spans a huge seascape around and between landscapes of thirty-two islands, was the last in our Caribbean region to be subjected to settler colonialism from Europe. To be sure, the Spaniards, French and British were itinerant occupants of our land from the late fifteenth century but our indigenous forebears, the Callinagos and the Garifuna, nationalist to the bone, resisted an organised colonial settlement of exploitation until they were defeated by superior weaponry in 1795. Indeed, the Treaty of Paris which ceded St. Vincent and the Grenadines to Britain in a general European carve-up of colonial possessions was essentially a letter from the air, not from the ground.

The British through chicanery and violence launched a merciless genocidal war against the Callinagos and Garifuna so as to ensure their defeat. Peaceful people going about their normal day-to-day lives were almost entirely exterminated because a tribe of Europeans wanted their land. Up to now no one from the conquering nation has apologised to the sturdy descendants of the Callinagoes and the Garifuna or offered appropriate and deserving recompense accordingly. These descendants are scattered throughout St. Vincent and the Grenadines, but centred mainly north of the Dry River and at Greggs, and in Belize, Honduras, Nicaragua, and Guatemala. These descendants in Central America came through the genes and heritage of the two thousand or so of their forebears who were exiled first to Roatan Island, off what was then British Honduras, after the genocidal war and corresponding resistance of 1795 in St. Vincent.

In this the year of the 200th anniversary of the Abolition of the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade, we in CARICOM must pursue coherently and in a focused, not episodic, way, the legitimate demand for a full apology and reparations from the Europeans for African slavery, a dastardly act against humanity, and for the ignoble subjugation of indentured labourers from India, China, and Madeira. A genuine partnership between our region and Europe demands, among other things, this wholesome righting of historic wrongs. The dignity of both the Caribbean and Europe justly summons this cleansing of the spirit and of the historical decks.

For me, this issue of the largest involuntary movement of persons ever in the Caribbean, the slave trade, rides in tandem with the largest anticipated voluntary movement of peoples in our region by way of the breathtaking cooperative initiative known as Cricket World Cup (CWC) in the months of March and April 2007. We are on display; we must do our best and be the best in our historic hosting of this world championship sporting event.

Mr. Chairman, CARICOM has made immense strides since the signing and ratification of the Revised Treaty of Chaguaramas in July 2001. The Single Market is a reality and by 2008 the Single Economy phase of the Caribbean Single Market and Economy (CSME) would be ushered in for further elaboration and completion, since, by its very nature, the CSME is an on-going work in progress.

In more ways than one, 2008 is a date with destiny for our region; so, 2007 is the vital preparatory year; and much work is there to be done. In 2008, the Single Economy will be upon us; by 2008 a redefined many-sided relationship, including, centrally, a trading arrangement between CARICOM and the United States of America, has to be formalised; by January 1, 2008, the European Union and CARIFORUM (CARICOM plus the Dominican Republic) is slated to conclude an Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA) which portends altered relationships of real consequence to our region; in 2008, the Doha Development Round holds great promises and challenges for us; and by 2008 even more profound developmental relations between CARICOM and the Dominican Republic, Cuban and Venezuela are in the offing.

CARICOM has been resting sometimes comfortably, oft-times uneasily, upon its three central pillars: Enhancing economic integration, including intra-regional trade; the coordination of foreign policy; and the pursuance of a many-sided functional cooperation. Lately, due to the exigencies of the extant circumstances, we have had to add practically, another pillar of cooperation in the area of regional security. In each area of regional cooperation there is, as always in life, living and production, much more to be done.

This Eighteenth Inter-Sessional Meeting of the Conference of Heads of Government of the Caribbean Community is expected to advance our work on several fronts. These include the furthering of the process for the full implementation of the CSME; the consideration of the Draft Strategy Paper on the “Vision and Framework for the Single Economy”; the reflections upon the proposals for altered governance arrangements of the Caribbean Community, especially those contained in the Report of the Technical Working Group; the bundle of issues relating to the historic hosting of the ICC Cricket World Cup; developments in the area of Health and HIV/AIDS; issues relating to Energy, Agriculture, Air and Maritime Transport, and the Free Movement of CARICOM nationals; recommendations emerging from organs or institutions of CARICOM as they relate to the Conference on the Caribbean in the USA, the CCJ, and the Commemoration of the 200th Anniversary of the Abolition of the Trans-Atlantic Slave trade, foreign policy, border issues, and the Competition Commission, and, vitally, CARICOM’s active partnership with, and in Haiti.

In this regional enterprise called the CSME, an issue of importance for all member-states, concerns the regimes for disadvantaged countries, regions and sectors. An entire Chapter, Chapter 7, of the Revised Treaty, consisting of twenty-six Articles, contains provisions on this subject matter. Indeed, Article 142 stipulates as follows:

“The provisions of this Chapter shall have effect for the purpose of establishing a regime for disadvantaged countries, regions or sectors within the framework of the Treaty as well as a special regime for Less Developed Countries in order to enhance their prospects for successful competition within the Community, and redress, to the extent possible, any negative impact of the establishment of the CSME.”

Article 143 of the Revised Treaty specifies the “Objective of the Regimes” as follows:

“1. The objective of the regimes mentioned in Article 142 is to assist the disadvantaged countries, regions and sectors towards becoming economically viable and competitive by appropriate interventions of a transitional or temporary nature.

2. The interventions referred to in paragraph 1 of this Article may include:

(a) technical and financial assistance to address economic dislocation arising from the operation of the CSME;

(b) special measures to attract investment and industries;

(c) transitional or temporary arrangements to ameliorate or arrest adverse economic and social impact arising from the operation of the CSME;

(d) special measures to assist industries to become efficient and competitive;

(e) assistance intended to achieve structural diversification and infrastructural development;

(f) assistance to economic enterprises disadvantaged by the removal of intraregional barriers;

(g) the establishment of mechanisms to monitor, and assist in the discharge of, obligations assumed under the Treaty and other international trade agreements.”

This Inter-Sessional Meeting has for consideration the establishment of a particular mechanism, directorate or agency to oversee, monitor, and bolster the implementation of this special and differential regime in Chapter Seven of the Revised Treaty. This is of seminal importance to the member-states of the OECS which are all listed as disadvantaged or less developed countries.

Mr. Chairman, member-states of CARICOM are currently embarked upon the building of a modern, competitive post-colonial economy which is at once national and regional. This many-sided strategic task has ramifications beyond the purely economic and trading arrangements. It has dimensions, too, which focus on the social, environmental, and governance issues.

Additionally, it is a cultural construct which connects with our demography, history, and geography. We, the contemporary products of our noble Caribbean civilisation, are compromises arising from a multiplicity of matrices. To know ‘how things run”, to use the poetics of the street, we have to ask our mothers and our fathers and our daughters and our sons; we have to reclaim our history and to take charge of our future, which is the only time of all that it is possible to desecrate. We continue to dream in a language which was originally not our own but which we have enriched abundantly. Now more than ever it is necessary and desirable to speak with, and in, our own voice, for ourselves and for humanity. We who do not know the exalted snow are nevertheless more privileged in that we experience daily the vast cathedral of our beautiful sky with the sun for steeple. Under this physical majesty, and in a wondrous environment, we who have never waged war nor coveted anther nation’s booty, live in peace and with the assurance that our nations are founded on the belief in the supremacy of God and the freedom and dignity of man.

In this Caribbean Community, at this inter-sessional meeting, our leaders, in shaping our future in communion with our people, must strive always to glimpse morning before sunrise, to see the dawn even at the darkest hour. We, who have come with our limiting burdens of yesterday, face today with immense possibilities, amidst an amazing grace, for our glorious tomorrows. We remember, we know, we dream, and we act for our people and for generations unborn. It is our destiny.

Thank you!