MONTEGO BAY, Jamaica, CMC:
REGIONAL TRADE officials have sought to highlight the need for urgent decision-making and greater civil society participation at a time when the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) is said to be engaged in "a very tall, very involved and intense" set of external trade negotiations.
Speaking ahead of the start of the 24th CARICOM Heads of Government summit here later this week, Richard Bernal, director-general of the Caribbean Regional Negotiating Machinery (RNM), said that "the subject matter and the urgency for decisions on the subject matter of the agenda, make this a very auspicious Heads of Government (meeting)".
He added that "the outcome of this meeting could very well have a major influence on the future of CARICOM, its institutions and its policy".
UNPRECEDENTED SITUATION
Bernal also noted that the region was now faced with "an unprecedented situation", in which it is simultaneously involved in negotiations in the World Trade Organisation, the Free Trade Area of the Americas and in the European Union /African, Caribbean and Pacific states arena, as well as a number of bilateral issues.
"Not only is the enormity of the task something which requires new resources and additional resources but the subject matter has grown considerably," he said.
"In the old days, trade meant what it said in the Oxford dictionary. Today, trade means anything that is happening internationally and sometimes involves aspects that go beyond international transactions to impinge on the autonomy of governments in their own domain."
Bernal also joined other key speakers at a regional media workshop on trade, which is taking place here ahead of the July 2-5 CARICOM Summit, in stressing the importance of civil society participation in the process.
He told media participants that their role was to provide that "critical nexus between the lay man and the technical expert" and about ensuring that the information gets out.
Chris Sinckler, the executive director of the Caribbean Policy Development Centre, also noted that the region was currently engaged in "a very tall, a very involved and intense agenda".
He stressed that it was, therefore, important for the media and civil society in general to be involved in the process of engaging the policy-makers at the highest level.
He said: "At the end of the day, it will be the average man or woman in the street that will be affected by the trade policies that are negotiated."
In delivering the feature address at Sunday's opening of the two-day workshop, journalist Canute James told his colleagues that in the increasingly globalised world they could no longer see themselves as "journalists of any particular Caribbean nationality".
