It is always a pleasure to welcome you, my colleague Ministers, officials and staff of the CARICOM Secretariat to Jamaica. We are meeting this time in the second city of Montego Bay and I urge you to take some time to explore – this is a rapidly growing city and you will, no doubt, see the very real impact of the growth in trade in services in full flight – new hotels are opening up, excellent restaurants and new business opportunities abound. For us, in a very practical way, the tourism sector continues to contribute in a robust way to the national economy.

In a few weeks, we will endeavour to mix business with pleasure as we strive to meet the challenging work schedule ahead while preparing to host the ICC Cricket World Cup in March and April – I look forward to welcoming many of you back to Jamaica for the eagerly awaited opening ceremony at our new, state-of-the-art stadium in Greenfield, Trelawny.

We have a full agenda before us and it is set against the background of a dynamic global trading arena that now includes the “full” resumption of negotiations in the WTO, ambitious deadlines for the ACP/EU EPAs and a range of follow-up work and enhanced cooperation to be addressed in our CARICOM bilaterals.

I have just returned from a WTO Mini-Ministerial which was held in Davos, Switzerland and I will be happy to share some thoughts with you on the implications of the full resumption of negotiations and the process that now lies before us. All of this, of course, is based on a critical need to build consensus over the next six – eight weeks or risk the complete failure of the Round.

It is a tall order to complete the required work given the “external” deadlines which we face and I am sure that you will agree that we as CARICOM should be prepared to block any deal which will ultimately disadvantage our consumers and producers and which adds no real value to our economies. We must be clear that the development that we failed to experience in the Uruguay Round, is fully apparent in the Doha final package.

On the question of EPAs, we also need to focus on finding the right balance between forging new arrangements for trading with our European partners and our own regional, institutional and economic development objectives grounded in the Revised Treaty of Chaguaramas. For us as negotiators, we have to work to fine tune our regional positions and prepare ourselves for the final sprint with a view to agreeing on a negotiated text that will capture all our concerns and serve to open up new levels of market access and new possibilities for the development of our local industries.

I would especially urge you to keep an open mind to finding new, creative ways at looking at CARICOM’s relationship with the Dominican Republic particularly as it is so intricately tied into the nature of the integration and enhanced business opportunities that we seek with our European counterparts.

Let us use the next two days to critically examine where we stand on the issues before us- let us frankly assess where our interests lie and reach agreement as a unified group on a way forward. Our goals are complex and challenging- as Caribbean people we are known for our ability to confront challenges and to surmount them. Let me hope that the next few days in Montego Bay make the tasks at hand seem more possible and more pleasant.

Once again, a warm welcome to all of you and let us strive for success in our deliberations.