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Prim~ Mlnist~ls R~port
Onll~tum
Canttdtt} U,K,, Finland
June 13? 1999
During the coun;e of my visit abroad, we sent home several releases. I think
you have been kept fully informed, but I just wanted to use this opportunity of
higblighting the outcome of the visits which I took to· Canada, Finland and the
United Kingdom.
First of all, I went to Canada in response to an invitation that had been
extended to me for a group known as the Montreal Conference that has been
meeting regularly, to discuss matters relating to a globalized eco~omy. They
invited a number of speakers from the hemisphere, political leaders, leaders of
institutions, members of the business community and of cow:se, governments.
On this occasion, which is the Jilih meeting that they have held, I was asked
to speak on the question of Agriculture, in the age of technology and its
implications to free trade.
I thought this was a topic of great relevance and importance to us in Jamaica
· and the Caribbean at this time and used the occasion to speak about the nature of
agricultural development in the Caribbean, tracing it from the stage of dependency,
when we were producing largely for the metropolitan countries, through the period
· of the plantation economy, our attempts to diversify and what is n~eded to adapt to
the requirements of modem technology. ·
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UWI LIBRARIES
The discussions on free trade were of great and timely importance, bearing in
mind that the timetable set by the heads of state and government is for a free trade
area of the Americas by the year 2005, and the Ministerial negotiations are to move
a stage .fu~her when Cana~a who is the coC?rd~ator o~ the group convenes a
meeting at the Ministerial level later this year.
We also had to bear in mind the coming meeting of Ministers in Seattle
again later this year which is looking at how the wro has operated and there is talk
of trying to negotiate what is called the millennium round, and I thought it was
necessary for Jamaica and the Caribbean to make our input at that level and at this
time.
I also used the occasion of my meeting with the Prime Minister of Canada to
discuss these matters in greater depth, granted Canada's lead position and the fact
thafCanada has always shown an understanding of the problems of the small
economies.
During my stay in Canada, I of course met with a number of Canadian
companies which have been operating in Jamaica for qci.te some time now. The
Bank of Nova Scotia and Alcan being the most outstanding. I also bad the
opportunity of meeting with the business community, both in Montreal and in
Toronto where I addressed a me~ting of the Canadian Club.
As you know, we signed two bilateral agreements with Canada, one dealing
with mutual cooperation in the fight against drugs, and gun trading and the other
dealing with the forfeiture of assets which would arise from convictions. for any of
those offenses. Th.is is another step in the process of cooperation between Jamaica
and other countries in the hemisphere.
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In Montreal, in Ottawa and in Toronto I met with the Jamaican community
and we had a Canadian version of "Live and direct" in Toronto, which had the usual
vibe whic;h one comes to ~xpect from "Liv.~ a~d direcf' meetipgs.
I believe that it is very important for us to keep in very close touch with the
overseas community, granted the contributions they have made and can make to the
process of national development. And also recognizing the importance for them to
be kept fully informed on all matters taking place in Jamaica, because what they say
does affect the dim.ate for business and the climate for tourism and they of course
were very pleased to be able to meet with me and pledge their continuing support for
the development of Jamaica.
I ~roceeded from Canada, to Europe ~nd I met with the President of
Finlan4, Mr. Ahtisaari who of course is very·much in the news because of the
contribution he has made to the settlement of the Kosovo dispute. In fact the day
I met with him, he had just returned from Beijing.
Finland was of great importance in getting an understanding of our position,
for the reason that Finland is a recent member of the EU, and it does not have the
background of l~ng involvement with the countries of the ACP. And indeed as we
come to negotiate the successor, to the Lome · N convention, Finland is going ·to
be in the chair at a time when we discuss the new framework agreement.
I was accompanied on that visit by Sir. Shridath Ramphall the Chief
negotiator and I was supported also by Mr. Byron Blake, ~ssistant secretary general
in addition to members of our own foreign ministry.
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The Fins described the meeting as both welcome and timely, we discussed the
question of bananas, as we did with the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom,
Mr. Blair and we did not confine ourselves to repeating how critical it is for there to
be some permanent settl~ment to the ban~na dispute, but. ~e ~egan t9 look a~
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alternatives in the light of recommendations that have been made by the European
Commission and are now being considered in the capitals of Europe.
In both Helsinki and London, what we had to say was very well received,
because they accepted our recognition that we in the Caribbean are prepared to
diversify but that sometime is going to be required. And that has to be a period of
sufficient lengths for us to I?ake the ~djustments in other areas and it has to enable
an atmosphere of security. for those who are actually engaged in the production of
banao..s.
We in the Caribbean and especially in the Windward Islands have involved in
the banana industry small producers, many of whom are female heads of household
and we have to consider the displacement factor and social implications.
It is clear that the solutions which have to be considered, none of them. are
without their difficulty, but we were able to point out, I think, very convincingly
that the proposal of seeking to resolve this maJter simply by an adjustment of the
tariff rate would not suffice for three reasons.
I. If the tariff were set too high, to constitute an effective barrier for what is not
more than 10% of the market, this means that 90% of the rest of the
market, the consequence would be a very sharp increase in the price of
bananas and this most JJkely would be received with consumer resistance.
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2. If on the other hand, you made tariffs too low, then it would not be difficult
for the banana producers, dollar banana producers to overrun the market in
the confidence that it would only be for a short period, by which time we
would have been totally destroyed; an~ they would hav~ ~e complete ~rk.et
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to do with it what they will.
3. The third reason is, that the whole world is moving to a reduction of tariffs.
And if we were going to increase the tariff substantially, then we would really
be mouing against the trend.
If we made it cle.ar that the solution to us is going to have to lie in son:e
combination of tariff and quota provisions, because it is nobody's interest to have
what I might call a totally unregulated market in which there could be mayhem for
the banana industry.
Work is going to have to continue at the technical level, between ourselves
and the European capitals, between our selves and the technocratic persons and of
course since we are loo~ to get a consensual agreement, we also want to m.a.intai~
contact with those who are working on the problem in the United States.
We, competitors from Latin America and within the next few weeks I think a
number of visits most likely at the Ministerial level will be taken to a number of
countries.
In the United Kingdom I als~ met with the Jamaican community leaders.
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