VZCZCXYZ0009
RR RUEHWEB

DE RUEHBH #0228/01 0791551
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
R 191551Z MAR 08
FM AMEMBASSY NASSAU
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 5312
INFO RUCNCOM/EC CARICOM COLLECTIVE

UNCLAS NASSAU 000228 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SENSITIVE 
SIPDIS 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PGOV PREL ETRD BF XL
SUBJECT: CARICOM LEADERS ADDRESS CRIME, TOURISM, ECONOMIC 
COOPERATION IN NASSAU 
 
REF: STATE 17705 
 
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SUMMARY 
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¶1.  (U) CARICOM heads of government gathered in Nassau March 
7-8 for an inter-sessional Heads of Government meeting that 
focused on preventing crime, lowering the cost of living, and 
improving domestic economic links with their important 
tourism sectors.  Reflecting mounting concerns throughout the 
region about violent crime, CARICOM leaders agreed to hold a 
special summit to address crime concerns in April in 
Trinidad, and agreed to Prime Minister Ingraham's proposal to 
make tourism a permanent agenda item in view of its singular 
economic importance to the region.  The Heads of Government 
also institutionalized a "functional cooperation" mechanism 
under Bahamian leadership within CARICOM but outside of the 
single-market framework.  This allowed Prime Minister 
Ingraham to demonstrate cooperation with CARICOM on The 
Bahamas' own terms -- important for him domestically -- while 
urging regional responses to global economic challenges, 
especially U.S. economic woes which loomed over the 
proceedings.  END SUMMARY. 
 
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LEADERS MEET AMIDST SPIRALING CRIME AND ECONOMIC UNCERTAINTY 
--------------------------------------------- --------------- 
 
¶2.  (U) Amidst regional anxiety about rising murder rates and 
U.S. economic woes, Prime Minister Hubert Ingraham of The 
Bahamas chaired the 19th Inter-Sessional Meeting of the 
Conference of Heads of Government of the Caribbean Community 
(CARICOM) in Nassau March 7-8.  The Prime Ministers of 
Antigua and Barbuda, Barbados, Belize, Dominica, Grenada, 
Haiti, Jamaica, St. Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, and 
Trinidad and Tobago, as well as the Presidents of Guyana and 
Suriname, attended.  Cabinet officials represented Montserrat 
and St. Vincent and the Grenadines, and associate members 
Turks and Caicos Islands and Bermuda.  The Charge attended 
the opening ceremony, a lunch for participants, and an 
evening reception following the first day of high-level 
meetings.  Meetings of the Council for Trade and Economic 
Development (COTED) and the Council for Finance and Planning 
(COFAP) were held March 3-6, contributing to a lengthy final 
communique on March 8.  Observers termed the event a success 
both from the Bahamian and regional points of view. 
 
--------------------------------------------- - 
CALLS FOR REGIONAL INTEGRATION, UNITY ON CRIME 
--------------------------------------------- - 
 
¶3.  (U) At the opening session March 7, Secretary General of 
CARICOM Edwin Carrington called for regional unity of purpose 
on the goal of integration, saying "time is not on our side." 
 Citing the weakness in the U.S. economy and high energy 
prices as urgent regional challenges, he argued that 
integration needed to proceed to a higher level to meet these 
rapidly evolving challenges.  Prime Minister David Thompson 
of Barbados expressed solidarity with Guyana over what he 
called senseless crime, in the wake of massacres in Bartica 
and Lusignan, and called on CARICOM to offer  whatever 
assistance was necessary to help Guyana protect its people. 
"If one of our member governments is perceived as incapable 
of bringing criminals to justice," he said, "then what is 
there to stop criminals elsewhere from challenging the 
authority of governments?"  He also lauded his predecessor, 
Owen Arthur, for his contribution to deepening relations 
among CARICOM states, in particular through the establishment 
of the CARICOM Single Market and Economy (CSME). 
 
¶4.  (U) Setting the stage for the discussions in his opening 
remarks, Prime Minister Ingraham said there had been a 
"seminal shift in world relations following the events of 
9/11."  While today's challenges may not be as dramatic as 
those of 9/11 and its aftermath, he maintained that "many of 
the issues confronting our people today are just as serious." 
 Specifically, he observed that the "economic downturn in the 
U.S." and "the high and increasing cost of fuel" was 
"negatively impacting all of our tourism economies and 
increasing the cost of living for our people."  He pointed to 
the sub-prime meltdown and "collapse" of the U.S. housing 
market as factors that would negatively impact travel to the 
Caribbean.  In the face of these threats, he warned that the 
region's tourism sector was "stalling." 
 
--------------------------------------------- ----------- 
INGRAHAM TOUTS TOURISM, DECRIES CRIME, HIGHLIGHTS HEALTH 
--------------------------------------------- ----------- 
 
¶5.  (U) To meet these challenges, Ingraham said closer 
 
Caribbean cooperation in tourism was needed, given tourism's 
crucial importance for most of the member states.  He called 
for more to be done in product development, service 
standards, marketing, eco-tourism, and sustainable tourism, 
and proposed that a special session on tourism be held in 
July 2008 in conjunction with CARICOM's annual Heads of 
Government meeting.  Ingraham drew particular attention to 
the inadequacy of links between domestic agriculture and 
marine sectors and tourism in many Caribbean economies, 
saying "none of us has achieved the all-important goal of 
linking our agricultural and marine resources sectors to the 
consumer sectors of our economies" in order to lower food 
prices and imports, and thereby decrease the cost (and 
increase the competitiveness) of the tourism product.  He 
pointed out that "this makes the threat of the loss of 
preferential access to developed world markets for our 
exports even more serious."  He suggested CARICOM states take 
lessons from the Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA) 
recently concluded with the EU "so as to inform our economic 
and commercial relations with our trading partners, near and 
far." 
 
¶6.  (U) Prime Minister Ingraham then turned his attention to 
shared law enforcement concerns in the region, noting  rising 
crime levels, an unabated illicit drug trade, and "the 
expansion of a gun culture in our region with awful social 
and economic consequences."  Referring to the HIV-AIDS 
pandemic in the region, where infection rates lag behind only 
sub-Saharan Africa, Ingraham pointed to the proliferation of 
non-communicable diseases (such as obesity or diabetes, 
so-called "rich country diseases" whose prevalence is on the 
increase in The Bahamas), and highlighted the importance of 
promoting wellness as a national policy. 
 
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URGES ECONOMIC COOPERATION OUTSIDE OF CSME 
------------------------------------------ 
 
¶7.  (U) Ingraham hailed the July 2007 Heads of Government 
meeting in Barbados which established a CARICOM task force 
(now sub-committee) on functional cooperation.  Ingraham, who 
now chairs this sub-committee, characterized this as "very 
correctly" shifting the focus of CARICOM cooperation "away 
from the mechanics of economic integration and towards 
investment in human and social development."  While not 
belittling the goal of achieving a single market economy, he 
said, "(it) permits the Community to develop proper 
mechanisms to increase the participation of non-CSME 
member-states like The Bahamas in all of the cooperative 
activities of the Community."  He expressed the hope that 
"this continuing effort by Caribbean leaders to reorganize 
and redefine the Community's institutions" would ensure 
CARICOM's continued relevance to the region's people. 
 
¶8.  (U)  Ingraham called for national and regional responses 
to "changing global (economic) realities" to include trade 
and investment liberalization and improved education and 
access to information technology, as part of making "human 
and social development" a pillar of CARICOM work.  "This is 
essential," he concluded, "if we are to ensure that economic 
growth and development in our countries translate into job 
creation and entrepreneurial and social opportunity for our 
citizens." 
 
--------------------------------------------- ----- 
OUTCOMES: CRIME, SECURITY, TOURISM, COST OF LIVING 
--------------------------------------------- ----- 
 
¶9.  (U) CARICOM leaders agreed to meeting again in April at a 
Special Summit on Regional Security to address crime concerns 
and to draft a strategy "to stem the rising tide of violent 
criminality" across the region.  This summit will be preceded 
by an extraordinary joint meeting of police and military 
chiefs.  The Heads of Government reaffirmed their commitment 
to security systems put in place for the Cricket World Cup in 
2007, accepted Ingraham's proposal to make tourism a 
permanent agenda item in view of its economic importance, and 
agreed to devote a day at the July 2008 meeting in Antigua to 
tourism.  Heads of government addressed the high cost of 
living by approving suspension for two years of the Common 
External Tariff on a set of commodities identified as having 
significant weight in the consumer price index.  The Task 
Force on Functional Cooperation chaired by Ingraham was 
established as a Prime Ministerial Sub-Committee which cited 
"human and social development as a pillar of the Community's 
work", according to the final communique. Human resource 
development, health, HIV-AIDS, free movement of skilled 
labor, agriculture, youth development, and moves toward a 
single economy were also cited as regional agenda items. 
 
--------------------------------------------- --- 
 
INTERNATIONAL ISSUES -- AND SHOUT-OUT TO CASTROS 
--------------------------------------------- --- 
 
¶10.  (SBU) Touching on other hemispheric concerns, CARICOM 
leaders agreed that the Second Conference on the Caribbean 
should take place in New York in June 2008, discussed 
bilateral border issues (Belize-Guatemala, Guyana-Venezuela), 
welcomed the agreement to settle the Ecuador-Colombia 
dispute, and committed to approving the EPA with the EU by 
June 30.  Heads of Government reiterated their support for 
Antigua and Barbuda in their WTO dispute with the U.S. and, 
in one discordant note, paid tribute to "His Excellency Fidel 
Castro who recently relinquished his presidency of Cuba, 
bringing to a close an historic chapter in his political life 
and in that of the Caribbean" and extended congratulations to 
Raul Castro. 
 
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COMMENT 
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¶11.  (SBU) From a domestic Bahamian perspective, Prime 
Minister Ingraham appears to have successfully balanced the 
country's CARICOM commitments with its CARICOM-skeptical 
public by framing cooperation with CARICOM on Bahamian terms 
-- that is, outside of CSME, but open to regional responses 
to global economic challenges.  With a small population and 
limited domestic market in a well-developed tourism-based 
economy, Bahamian businesses would appear well-placed to take 
advantage of sectoral investment opportunities in other 
Caribbean markets.  And, with its big hotels and millions of 
U.S. visitors, The Bahamas is also a lucrative market for 
intra-Caribbean exports such as fresh produce.  The potential 
for intensified Bahamian links with Haiti, for example, 
exists in both directions.  From a regional perspective, the 
Nassau meeting helped frame some potentially beneficial areas 
for intensified cooperation such as tourism linkages, 
intra-regional transportation, and energy.  At the end of the 
day, however, crime and global economic uncertainties are the 
dominant concerns and looming challenges for the region. 
SIEGEL