I NOTE ON MEETING ON
WEDNESDAY, 24TH SEPTEMBER 1997
BETWEEN THE RT HON P J PATTERSON,
PRIME MINISTER OF JAMAICA
AND
MR ROBIN COOKE, FOREIGN AND COMMONWEAL TH
SECRET ARY OF THE UNITED KINGDOM
The meeting opened with the Honourable Prime
Minister (HPM) offering congratulations to Mr Cooke on the
British Labour Party's win at the polls earlier this year. Although
he had written to offer congratulations to Prime Minister Blair this
was the first opportunity he had had to meet personally with a
member of the Cabinet. ,
Mr Cooke thanked HPM and said the purpose of the
meeting was to discuss Montserrat. Up until about eight weeks
or so the UK Government had run into serious problems in
dealing with Montserrat. The position now is much clearer. The
UK Government would assist those who want to leave and to
create a viable future for those who want to remain. He had had
a very good meeting with Chief Minister Brandt and the UK
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Government was working on a sustainable development plan for
the northern section. There are long-term plans and it would be
some time before they would be finalised. In the meanwhile,
there were other areas such as health which had to be tackled
much sooner.
The scientific advice received by the UK Government was
that the northern sector, beginning at the second Hills range, will
be safe. Those living in this area are at no risk - health or
otherwise. He was concerned about those living in the Central
Valley and hoped they could be persuaded to move.
The UK Government's commitment to the future growth
and development of the northern section was being negated by
adverse publicity.
HPM said the Caribbean was no stranger to disasters.
Never had there been a disaster in the Caribbean on a scale such
as the volcano in Montserrat. CARICOM's first concern was in
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terms of humanitarian assistance - what affected one CARICOM
member was of concern to all.
Until about six weeks ago, CARICOM was concerned that
the interest displayed in the problem was not commensurate with
its gravity. CARICOM wants to work with the Administering
Power to do what is best for Montserrat. If the Government of .
Montserrat was satisfied with the arrangements being made, so
was CARICOM.
He had had talks with the new Chief Minister and they
agreed that we all need to work together to do what is best for
the recovery of Montserrat.
Having said this, he had to draw attention to the fact that
Antigua was affected by the situation in Montserrat not only in
terms of dealing with displaced persons who had come to
Antigua but also with the environmental problems associated with
the volcano - ash, etc. Antigua was not seeking compensation
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but needed assistance to cope with the inflow of displaced
persons.
CARICOM has decided to help. Jamaica was sending
nurses and a number of States had taken children. Jamaica was
looking into the employment of teachers from Montserrat and it
had been decided to erect a CARICOM Village in the northern
section near to where the British were constructing a village. It
was hoped that the infrastructure to be laid down could
accommodate both villages.
Jamaica is prepared to assist in areas of human expertise
and other countries are prepared to help. The important thing
was that CARICOM wanted to channel their assistance to
Montserrat in a constructive manner.
The British Foreign Secretary expressed appreciation of the
assistance rendered so far by CARICOM and especially by
Antigua and agreed that if the problem was to be resolved, all -
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the British Government, CARICOM and the Government of
Montserrat - had to work together.
He then asked the HPM what else could the British
Government do to assist Jamaica. HPM responded in one word
"Bananas". He said that when President Clinton met with
CARICOM leaders earlier this year, he said he would speak with
the Europeans about Bananas. The Caribbean Banana producers
are hoping that, despite the appeal, the Europeans can persuade
the United States not to press for a change of the European
Union Banana Regime in its present form. He did not expect it to
be renewed in its present form, but especially for growers in the
Windward Islands any changes in the regime at this time would
create major problems.
The Foreign Secretary said the US was pressing hard and
the Germans were supportive of them. It was difficult to get
away from the fact that the US and its allies had won their case
at the World Trade Organisation (WTO).
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HPM said the US was talking of compensation as a result of
changes in the tariff structure and that the windfall which would
accrue to the EU should help them to assist those affected to try
to overcome their problems. Even then he said this would have
deleterious effects.
The Foreign Secretary remarked that the US was always
making promises and expecting the EU to pay. He ended by
stating that the British Government would do all they could to
assist but one should not expect miracles.
After an exchange of pleasantries the meeting ended.
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