VZCZCXRO9495
RR RUEHGR
DE RUEHKG #0167/01 0631610
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
R 041610Z MAR 09
FM AMEMBASSY KINGSTON
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 7358
INFO RUEHSP/AMEMBASSY PORT OF SPAIN 5186
RUCNCOM/EC CARICOM COLLECTIVE
RUEHLO/AMEMBASSY LONDON 0549
RUEHCV/AMEMBASSY CARACAS 0555
RUMIAAA/CDR USSOUTHCOM MIAMI FL

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 KINGSTON 000167 
 
SIPDIS, SENSITIVE 
 
STATE FOR WHA/CAR - ANDRE CADIEUX, BRIDGET PREMONT 
WHA/EPSC - DAVID SILVERMAN, ROBERT SCHWARTZ 
WHA/PDA - CHAD WEST, JOHN DICKSON 
 
E.O. 12958:  N/A 
TAGS: ECON EFIN ENRG ETRD PGOV PREL KPAO KSUM JM XL
SUBJECT: JAMAICA: 2009 SUMMIT OF THE AMERICAS (SOA) 
 
REF: STATE 8206 (292031Z JAN 09) 
 
Summary 
------- 
 
¶1. The Government of Jamaica (GoJ) has high expectations for the 
2009 SOA to be held April 17-19 in Port-of-Spain.  Post is 
implementing a number of public diplomacy outreach initiatives, and 
the SOA has begun to receive attention in the local media. 
End Summary. 
 
Foreign Minister's Expectations for SOA 
--------------------------------------- 
 
¶2. Responding publicly to a question concerning expectations for 
meeting President Obama at the SOA, Jamaica's Minister of Foreign 
Affairs and Foreign Trade Dr. Kenneth Baugh recently stated: "It 
will be my first Summit of the Americas.  The question is - what 
will be President Obama's attitude to the Caribbean?  There has been 
some neglect [by the U.S.] over the past ten years.  During the 
[U.S. Presidential] campaign, there was some sign the U.S. will give 
preference to the domestic economy.  We need a larger common market 
in the region.  The various FTAs can coalesce.  The U.S. is our 
biggest trading partner.  The CBI ends in 2010/2011.  We are in 
negotiations to see what we will do.  Possibly we might negotiate 
FTAs with the U.S. and Canada.  We hope the SOA will give an 
indication of Pres. Obama's approach to the Caribbean and Latin 
America.  I also hope to establish contact with Secretary Clinton. 
The issue of Cuba will come up.  We [CARICOM] have discussed this at 
all our meetings.  We called on the U.S. to end the blockade.  NAFTA 
has been successful - we need a repeat in this region.  We are 
keeping our eyes on CAFTA - it seems to have been a success so far." 
 
 
Meeting with Jamaica's SOA Coordinator 
-------------------------------------- 
 
¶3. EmbOff shared reftel talking points in the course of a private 
meeting with the GoJ's SOA Coordinator, Amb. Paul Robothom, the 
Under-Secretary for Bilateral and Regional Affairs in the Ministry 
of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade (MFAFT), on the morning of 
February 23 (note: SOA website has not yet been updated to indicate 
that Robothom, rather than former MFAFT Permanent Secretary Amb. 
Douglas Saunders, is the GoJ's SOA Coordinator). 
 
¶4. Robothom agreed that the upcoming Summit represented an excellent 
opportunity for the nations of the hemisphere to coordinate efforts 
across a broad range of issues, from energy and the environment to 
the global economic recession.  He asked whether President Obama 
planned to meet separately with Caribbean leaders.  He said the 
Canadians had invited Caribbean leaders to a breakfast on Saturday 
morning, April 18, and noted that this breakfast apparently would 
fill the only time designated on the "Provisional Programme" for 
"Bilateral Discussions."  (Comment: President Obama is extremely 
popular throughout the region, and Robothom clearly intended to 
convey that Caribbean leaders would welcome an opportunity for a 
separate meeting.  End Comment.) 
 
Post's Planned Public Diplomacy Outreach Initiatives 
--------------------------------------------- ------- 
¶5. Kingston's Public Affairs Section (PAS) is planning the following 
PD initiatives preceding the Summit: 
-- press assistants are identifying a senior Jamaican journalist to 
attend the Foreign Press Center tour to Washington to meet with 
principals and experts on the Summit; 
-- a senior Jamaican journalist has agreed to serve as moderator at 
the pre-Summit civil society forum in Trinidad and will stay on to 
report on Summit events; 
-- an enthusiastic press release to all media announcing President 
Obama's first visit to the region; 
-- placement of an op-ed from Washington in coming days; 
-- depending on the amount of interest generated by mid-March, PAS 
may organize a media roundtable to discuss the Summit's theme, 
"Securing Our Citizens' Future by Promoting Human Prosperity, Energy 
Security, and Environmental Sustainability;" 
-- alternatively, a roundtable discussion with NGOs and other 
interested contacts; 
-- a digital video conference with a Washington expert and invited 
selected contacts and press. 
 
SOA Op-Ed Featured in Jamaica Gleaner newspaper 
--------------------------------------------- -- 
 
¶6. The first op-ed discussing the Summit appeared in The Sunday 
Gleaner on March 1.  Frequent contributor Jorge Heine, who holds a 
 
KINGSTON 00000167  002 OF 002 
 
 
Chair in Global Governance at the Balsillie School of International 
Affairs in Waterloo, Ontario, urges Caribbean leaders to use the 
Summit to highlight the specific conditions of the Caribbean and its 
needs as different from those of Latin America.  Heine argues that 
opening the door a bit wider to free trade with Caribbean nations 
will not be enough to solve the region's many problems.  He urges 
leaders to seek a meeting with President Obama to impress upon him 
the urgency of the situation in the Caribbean and recommends 
presenting him with a wish list of five items:  1) come through on a 
campaign promise of debt relief for the neediest developing nations; 
2) re-think the "war on drugs" by turning around the "wrong-headed 
approach" to fight this problem without tackling the U.S. demand 
that  drives it; 3) stop the repatriation of convicted criminals to 
the islands; 4) "dust off the old development tool kits" as the 
adage "trade, not aid" does not apply to a region that still needs 
to build up its productive capacity before having enough goods to 
trade in significant amounts; and 5) loosen up immigration 
restrictions for the entire region since English-speaking Caribbeans 
do very well in the U.S. 
HEG