By Leonardo Blair, Staff Reporter THREE OF the most controversial and important issues affecting the 15-member Caribbean Community (CARICOM) will be high on the agenda of the 25th meeting of the group's Heads of Government Summit that officially begins in St. George's, Grenada tomorrow.
Government heads will be focusing on the CARICOM Single Market and Economy (CSME), which is geared towards creating a single economic space among CARICOM States; as well as the challenges facing the regional sugar industry and the controversial Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ).
Other issues to be discussed include crime, especially narco-trafficking and the HIV/AIDS epidemic.
Locally there has been much dicussion surrounding both the CSME and the CCJ, however, Jamaica's Prime Minister P.J. Patterson, while addressing a joint session of the St. Lucian Parliament in Castries, St. Lucia on Thursday, said the region's leaders were determined to implement both bodies by the agreed deadlines.
A 2005 deadline has been set for the establishment of the CSME, while the CCJ should be up and running by year's end. Jamaica and St. Lucia are among a small group of countries which have decided to go ahead with the establishment of the CCJ and St. Lucia has already passed the enabling legislation to set up that body.
On Thursday, the first of three CCJ Bills was passed in the Jamaican Senate after discussions were stalled due to a series of motions before the Courts challenging the constitutionality of the government's move to abolish appeals to the United Kingdom-based Privy Council. The CCJ is expected to be an important part of the CSME.
In a press release from the CARICOM Secretariat, CARICOM Secretary-General, Edwin Carrington said that special meetings of the Council for Trade and Economic Development (COTED) dealing with external negotiations, and the Advisory Council for the CSME had convened in Grenada on July 2 to set the stage for talks among regional leaders.
Stressing the importance of the sugar issue, the CARICOM Secretary-General noted that the European Union (EU) Sugar Protocol, which sets out the trade parameters for the export of sugar from the region, and which was created in the 1970s within the framework of an "indefinite" duration, is now being changed with serious consequences for CARICOM Member States.
At the opening ceremony of the CARICOM Heads of Government Meeting today, presentations will be made by P.J. Patterson and Baldwin Spencer, Prime Minister of Antigua and Barbuda.
Presentations will also be made by Dr. Keith Mitchell and Dominica's Prime Minister, Hon. Roosevelt Skerrit as well as the Secretary-General.
