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"This Convention ...
is for the
purpose of serving
and better providing
for our people"
Hon. P.J. Patterson, Q.C., M.P.
Prime Minister of Jamaica
Address to the 17th ACP/EEC Joint Council Meeting
by the Hon. P.J. Patterson, Q.C., M.P.
Prime Minister of Jamaica
Jamaica Conference Centre
Kingston, Jamaica
Thursday, May 21, 1992
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C-: tis ~deed an honour for Jamaica to host what is for me a family
reumon.
I have every confidence that you will enjoy your stay with us and
hope you will feel very much at home among us.
I trust that all the arrangements which have been made to ensure
your comfort and to facilitate your deliberations will prove satisfactory.
We enjoy a fine reputation for hospitality and, on this occasion,
when for the first time the annual meeting of the Joint Council is being
held in the Caribbean, we feel an even greater obligation to exceed our
own high standards.
Perhaps only a few of us in this distinguished gathering are able
to recall those early years,just under two decades ago, when we began to
formulate the ideas and concepts that gave birth to the ACP.
I ask you all to join me for a moment in paying silent tribute to the
vision and pioneering zeal of the founders of this international fraternity,
many of whom are no longer with us.
The enlargement of the EEC Membership as we commenced the
decade of the seventies, once again, opened the question of the future
relationship of a large number of countries in Africa, the Caribbean and
the Pacific with the community.
By then, the glaring inadequacies of the Yaounde Convention
and the Arusha Agreement had prompted a number of countries in Africa
to re-assess their own economic relationships with Europe.
An important element in this conjuncture was the economic and
political implications of the "oil shock" of 1973.
What were we trying to achieve when this large number of
countries from Africa and the Pacific first arrived in Brussels? ACP
countries, for the most part, had not previously worked together in any
significant way, and in many respects were completely unfamiliar with
each other. There were differences in style, in language and in cultural
traditions.
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Together, we assessed our common experience in trading relationships
with the developed world.
We examined the problems of north-south imbalances and of the
adverse terms of trade.
We concluded that there ought to be a new set of relationships
based not on a colonial pattern, but on partnership and sovereign equality
in an arrangement that would work to our mutual benefit.
Although we had particular interests about specific commodities,
we nevertheless, shared a commonality of interest. That is what inspired
us to come together.
In 197 4, we were privileged to host in Kingston, a conference that
proved decisive in shaping the broad outlines for the First Lome Convention.
It was as though a special magic enabled us during our meeting
here to develop a shared understanding and to find the solutions to
problems that in Brussels had seemed intractable.
FUNDAMENTAL CHANGES
Today, we meet at a time when fundamental changes have once
again altered the contours of the world in which we live.
The dissolution of the Soviet Union has created a commonwealth
of aspiring democracies to which vast financial and material resources are
being channelled.
The imminence of a unified European Community epitomizes
the global trend towards the creation of larger trading blocs.
We were conscious of the debt crisis in 1975. This has since
become even more grave. The environmental problem also existed, but
has become more acute in the intervening years. It is now commanding
centre stage and demands urgent action from us all.
To meet these challenges and find adequate solutions, we must
summon our collective will, imagination and determination.
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A review of the present Lome Arrangement confirms the view
that the negotiators of that Convention have kept faith with the three
previous conventions. Lome IV attempts to respond to the changes
occurring in the international landscape in the light of our own experiences,
needs and concerns.
Despite this, there is, however, a deep and growing apprehension
being expressed by ACP member countries, including my own, at recent
developments that threaten the harmony between the partners in our
special relationships.
What then has led to the situation in which the ACPcountries now
(eel a sense of insecurity?
There is no doubt that, in preparing the way for the single
economic market, the Community has been and will be faced with
conflicts between commitments given to the ACP under the Lome
Conventions on the one hand, and the free market principles guiding the
process towards the single market, on the other. Pressing issues relating
to bananas and sugar readily come to mind, although there are several
others.
COMMITMENT To DEVELOPMENT
Once again, in Kingston, we urge a renewal of commitment by
the European Community to the goals of development The good faith
application of that commitment in the perusal of ACP/EEC relations
would readily point the way to a resolution of the current flaws and
thereby avoid any conflict between Lome obligations and features of the
single European market.
There is no denying the importance we attach to securing the best
conditions for the marketing of our export commodities. However, there
are other issues which invite attention.
All of us who feared a nuclear holocaust; all of us who feared
military confrontation between NA TO and Warsaw pact countries; all of
us who fervently hoped for a reduction in global tension; all of us who felt
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powerless to prevent the senseless destruction of our world, are indeed
relieved at the turn of events in Eastern Europe.
Those of us who support the democratic process and human rights
are particularly pleased at these developments. We want the process to
continue. But we cannot applaud decisions that come to the aid of eastern
Europe which ignore the prospects for regional conflicts elsewhere; that
allow the large disparities which exist between nation states to be
maintained and which fail to provide the economic programmes and
provide the underpinning necessary to sustain democracy and the basic
conditions for human existence.
Meeting the developmental needs of the east should not mean the
diversion of resources from the south. The cessation of the Cold War
should permit the accumulation of more than adequate resources derived
from the peace dividend and enable a fair and rational distribution of the
savings which result in a cutback on military ex.penditure.
The reduction in armaments and military hardware and the
technology that was applied to develop more sophisticated weaponry;
that created the ability in some to kill the,,.others of us or each other ten
times over, can now be diverted to feed, clothe and house the starving
millions on this globe.
LESSEN HUMAN SUFFERING
It means these resources can be devoted to lessen human suffering
from disease, from homelessness, from ignorance, from poverty,
from abject despair. It should mean prompt relief for millions of refugees
the world over - whether they flee their land of origin for economic or
political reasons.
If political systems of developed or developing countries deny
opportunity and are μicapable of satisfying basic needs, if these systems
lead thousands of people to seek refuge in other lands, the question of
whether they are economic or political refugees becomes merely semantic.
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f
I submit that this problem looms as large in the European
continent as it does in the continents of Africa and Asia or the Caribbean
and Pacific Seas.
No economic framework for co-operation in the trading of
commodities can be meaningfully worked out without taking these stark
realities into consideration. I crave your indulgence as head of government
to be permitted one clear digression which I readily acknowledge
to be born out of self interest.
I speak of the Third United Nations Convention of the Law of the
Sea. Jamaica has been chosen as the headquarters for the authority. I urge
all members of the A CP and the EEC who have not yet done so to ratify
this Convention as soon as possible. The sea is one of the few remaining
opportunities for mankind to demonstrate our commitment to orderly and
sustainable development and the rejection of destructive competition.
Another area requiring our concerted action and collaborative
participation is, of course, the UnitedN ations Conference on the environment
and development scheduled for Brazil in June this year. The threat
to our shared environment represents the ultimate test of our ability to cooperate
with each other in a desperate race against time.
To my mind, the issues of ACP/EEC co-operation and dialogue
go beyond the areas of direct interfacing between the two groups. A
genuine development focus which must be the ultimate objective of
member states, demands that relevant concerns become the subject of
attention in wider fora of negotiations or events in which parties to Lome
play a role, orin which they participate. I refer to deliberations which have
substantial implications for development of ACP countries, in fora such
as the GA TT, the IMF, the WorldBankandothermultilateral institutions.
RIGIDITY OF SOME INSTITUI'IONS
The fact that developing countries, such as Jamaica, are net
contributors to International Financial Institutions should certainly be a
matter for concern in a developmental context. We need to address the
rigidity of those institutions regarding their inability to reschedule
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repayments, especially in cases where the bulk of indebmess is owed to
them and therefore not included in programmes of debt forgiveness.
Further, the development focus would provide for more concrete
inter-linkages between deliberations in different fora. For example, it is
apparent that the appropriate connections have not been made between
the increasing tendency toward applying human rights conditionalities to
development aid- bilaterally and internationally-and the push towards
so-calledfreetrade.Bywayofillustration,theCARICOMsub-regionhas
a long tradition of political and economic democracy- a theme which is
given high priority by the community under the rubric of "good governance".
However, the rhetoric of free trade, particularly the component of
competitiveness, does not seem to take into account the extent to which
workersenjoy,ordonotenjoy,democracyorcollectivebargainingrights,
· in order to obtain fair and reasonable compensation for their labour,-as
between various countries competing for markets for similar products.
Similarly, no particular account seems to be taken of bold
economic reform measures instituted by countries in terms of the extent
of support forthcoming from the International Financial Institutions. No
one begrudges the pledges, amounting to US$6 billion, in respect of
support for stabilization of the rouble. It is, however, somewhat disheartening
to note the absence of any such support, in the specific context of
liberalization of the Foreign Exchange Market being _undertaken by a
number of ACP states.
PRIMARY Focus
Finally, I tum to the subject which is the primary focus of this
gathering. What of the future of the ACP/EEC? For nearly two decades,
our encounters have provided a platform exclusively for political leadership.
I hope by now·we have created a framework which will permit a
much broader and multifaceted interaction among our people. Our
respective private sectors have now to be brought on centre stage, since
in an increasingly market-driven global economy it is the private sector
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which must be the engine of growth and the producers of the goods and
services on which we base our economic co-operation.
We should remind ourselves that towards the end of the nineteenth
century, the European powers met in a room to partition Africa,
without any consideration for traditional geographic and cultural boundaries.
The consequences were catastrophic as tribal wars and other forms
of violent confrontation seriously eroded that Continent's capacity to
develop.
Stalinism bequeathed to Eastern Europe a similar legacy of
artificial divisions. There, tribal wars are now a reality.
The lesson we have to learn is that the only guarantee of unity and
peaceful co-operation is understanding among people, facilitated by
popularcontactinevery sphereofendeavour. Unity amongpeoplecannot
be imposed. It must be facilitated not only by Govemmentto Government
contact but by people to people contact at all levels. Only in this way can
we effect the type of integration that cuts across ethnic, racial, religious
and political divisions.
Cultural interaction will have to assume primary importance if
people of our respective countries are to develop closer bonds of
friendship and understanding. Let us never forget that this Convention is
not for the benefit of governments but for the purpose of serving and better
providing for our people.
I urge you in your deliberations to establish a framework by
which we can introduce this new dimension of people to people contact
as an integral part of the objectives of the ACP/EEC.
I wish you a successful conference that will be beneficial to the
millions of people the world over and promote a new era of lasting peace
all over the single globe which the human race must share.
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• JIS
Jamaica Information Service
Kingston , Jamaica.
May 1992
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