Remarks by the Honourable Mia Amor Mottley, QC, MP, Prime Minister of Barbados, as outgoing Chair of the Conference of Heads of Government of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) during the 20th Special Meeting of the Conference of Heads of Government via Video-Conference (July 3, 2020).
[00:00:00] Thank you very much, Secretary-General, colleague Heads of Government, in particular, incoming Chair of the Caribbean Community, the Honourable Dr. Ralph Gonsalves, and indeed all members of the Caribbean Community listening.
[00:00:12] It is my distinct pleasure to have a conversation with you this morning in what is really unusual circumstances. When my brother President Bouterse asked me in July of 2018, just less than, just after one month of being the Prime Minister of Barbados, whether we would agree to become Chair of CARICOM in the first half of 2020 because of their own constitutional arrangements for an election in Suriname; I didn’t know what I was getting into when I said yes. Little did we expect that 2020 would be distinctive not only in the roundness of its number, but also in the fullness of its challenges. But nevertheless, we are here. We are standing. We are fighting. We are family.
[00:01:03] It is against this background, therefore, that I will do what I usually do at the end, first. I want to thank you, Secretary-General, and all of the members of the Secretariat and of the regional institutions. If ever there was a time that we understood the importance of these regional institutions, it is now. Everyday countries across this region can manage who comes in and out of their borders with the assistance of IMPACS. IMPACS has made a difference from Bahamas in the north to Guyana and Suriname in the south, from Barbados in the east to Belize in the west. It has allowed us to help screening and to be able to deal with what none of us ever contemplated would be our reality – closed borders not only to the international community, but to each other.
[00:01:59] Similarly, CARPHA, the Caribbean Public Health Agency, an institution that is less than 20 years all like IMPACS, but formed to be able to respond to the public health needs of our people without CARPHA, many countries in the region would not be able to test their own citizens, far less anyone else. We give you thanks, CARPHA, for the wonderful role that you have played.
[00:02:23] Similarly, CDEMA. CDEMA – people hear CDEMA only every hurricane season and usually after a hurricane has devastated one of our countries. Without the Caribbean Disaster Emergency Management Agency, we would not be able to manage not just disasters like hurricanes, but the reality is that they are our point person with the World Health Organization and with the initiative that I will announce shortly that will allow our people to be able to procure from PPEs to in vitro diagnostics and all of the critical things needed to be able to deal with COVID.
[00:03:02] Without the Secretariat, my brothers and sisters, we would not be here. So that and I can go on and on because on the issue of food security, CAHFSA will play an even more important role. The important point, my brothers and sisters, is that these regional institutions have stood the test of time, but are also playing a value, an invaluable role for us at a time when individual countries do not have the capacity on their own to meet the demands of their nations’ imperatives or the people within the context of CARICOM at this point.
[00:03:39] I also want to thank the Pan American Health Organization and the World Health Organization, with whom Caribbean, quite frankly, would have been left to the Wild, Wild West, exposed to the ravages of all of the gale-force winds of COVID. But they have stood from their leadership right down through the organizations at our side, ensuring that any deficit that we have, whether with respect to technical expertise on island, or capacity to access product at a time when the market failures were literally swirling around the world and affecting larger countries, far less small ones like ourselves, we thank you for that cooperation.
[00:04:22] There is no doubt, my friend, that we have to be able to also thank the Caribbean Development Bank, who has stood there for many of our countries and who, for example, have been able to be able to ensure that provisions were made so that countries would be able to continue their debt service with respect to their obligations within the Caribbean Development Bank. We thank you all. And this is a reaffirmation for me and I’m sure for many as to the vital importance of regional cooperation and regional collaboration.
[00:04:55] What has 2020 really been about? I could give a technocratic speech or I could come and talk about what I think Caribbean people expect to hear this morning on a few issues. And I’ve chosen to do the latter. COVID-19, has literally scarred 2020 in ways that will forever be remembered throughout the annals of history. We did not expect to shut down our borders to ourselves as a family, to the rest of the world. We are regrettably mourning the death of people who are Caribbean citizens. Thankfully, the numbers were nowhere near what they could otherwise have been. And the truth is that the Caribbean represents one of those regions that has had relative success in the containment of COVID-19, as we speak, and is certainly a low -risk region with the majority of countries not showing any new positive test results in recent weeks.
[00:05:55] Have we passed the worse? We do not know. Are we to remain engaged? Absolutely. And to that extent, those regional institutions to which I referred, as well as an initiative which has been brought to our opportunity for us, brought by the World Health Organization Director-General and indeed the countries of Africa, we want to thank them for now agreeing that the Caribbean can have access to an African Medical Supplies Platform that will allow the smallest of our countries to be able to access PPE, in vitro diagnostics, therapeutics when they come, vaccine when it comes in the same way that the largest of the countries of Africa will be able to do so, and in the same way that we will be able to make sure that what transpired in March, April and May will not be repeated going forward because we have access to the suppliers who can supply for us at the scale that we need and more importantly, a country like St. Kitts with 40,000 people will be able to procure goods at the same price as Nigeria with 200, over 200 million persons as their population base.
[00:07:16] So that, that opportunity to be onboarded on the African Medical Supplies Platform gives us a tremendous change for our individual countries, our hospitals, our polyclinics to be able to fight off the worst ravages of COVID-19. I want to thank President Ramaphosa of South Africa, as well as President Kenyatta as Chairman of the African, Caribbean and Pacific States for agreeing that Heads of Government of the Caribbean Community will be able to have their countries benefit and participate from this platform. It is a game-changer for us in the context of the management of COVID-19.
[00:08:01] But COVID-19 has also wrought serious economic hardship and damage to our region. And the truth is, we’ve had to make significant calls and write so many letters that I cannot even remember, to Heads of Government across the world reflecting on the fact that the Caribbean Community is the most travel and trade-dependent region in the world. And that in many instances in our Community, countries depend on tourism to the extent of almost 40 to 50 percent of their GDP, both directly and indirectly. It is a hard, hard, hard blow that this region is facing. And to that extent, therefore, we have tried to reach out to the global community on a number of issues with respect to being able to handle our increased debt load, to being able to deal with the fact that we are not getting the revenue in this fiscal year that we would otherwise expect. And that therefore, when you combine these factors along with the other factors that we have faced with respect to the climate crisis, like the water situation or the sargassum situation, as well as the risk that we now face in the hurricane season, then the Caribbean is exceedingly vulnerable economically and nationally to these circumstances.
[00:09:27] What has it meant? That we continue to ask for extraordinary assistance, that we ask the world not to treat us as if we were invisible, that we ask the world to listen to our peculiar circumstances.
[00:09:39] I’m happy to report that after months of writing and months of lobbying that we’ve had from some of our partners, very positive responses. Indeed, as recent as last night, I received a letter from the Secretary of State of the United States of America, Mr. Mike Pompeo, as well as the Secretary of Treasury, Mr. Steve Mnuchin, jointly signed by them and written to me as Chair of the Caribbean Community. And while I will not read the entire letter, I will make available the letter to colleague Heads of Government and to two other interested parties, largely because for the first time, we have now before us, a significant and bold initiative, an opportunity to be able to work together with our partners within the hemisphere to see how best we can blunt the instruments or blunt the consequences of COVID-19 as we go forward.
[00:10:37] In the letter, it was made absolutely clear that the United States has committed itself and has developed a multifaceted framework that they believe will help the region address the immediate humanitarian needs as well as assistance in the long term recovery. Indeed, in the letter, it goes on to state specifically, one, first – if requested, the United States would support temporary access to the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development just for COVID-19 related assistance for the Bahamas and Barbados, the two Caribbean graduates from the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development.
[00:11:17] Let me say that we have been making and arguing this case for over two years and we have made it more recently, again, in all of our correspondence to the heads of the international financial institutions and to the Heads of Government across the entire global community, in the Americas, in Europe, in Asia, across the entire global community, that one – that at the very least, those countries in the Caribbean that have been graduated from access to concessional funding from the World Bank ought to be given access now, largely because the needs in a pandemic or the needs coming out of a hurricane, as was the case with the Bahamas, with Hurricane Dorian, require that they have access to concessional funding that will allow us to meet the most urgent demands of survival first and then thereafter to begin the journey of transformation once we have ensured that we can cause as many of our people to survive this awful pandemic.
[00:12:17] The United States of America has in this letter made it very clear that for this period of time that those countries, Barbados and the Bahamas, should be able to access funds, concessional funds from the World Bank going forward.
[00:12:31] Similarly, they have also added that in addition, “we will not object on the basis of income classification to borrowing by members from the Inter-American Development Bank to assist with economic or health recovery efforts”. This is also substantive for us, and this is what we were asking for, like with the exceptional access to the World Bank and we, too, have gotten it with respect to this letter. They continue, “we have engaged with the World Bank staff to impress upon them that economic reform programs that can be supported by the international financial institutions should receive necessary and appropriate financing consistent with the World Bank’s commitments on support to small states under the recent capital increase package. We urge you as Chair of CARICOM, to encourage those countries to engage constructively with the international financial institutions, including the IMF, on the type of strong reforms to public finance and governance that you are implementing in your own country. To address immediate liquidity needs, the United States has leveraged its leadership at the IMF to support a total of 1.7 billion dollars in new emergency funding for Caribbean countries. Bahamas, Barbados, Dominica, the Dominican Republic, Grenada, Haiti, Jamaica, St. Lucia and St. Vincent and the Grenadines have benefited from IMF emergency funding to address the humanitarian and economic ramifications of COVID-19 pandemic. For the poorest countries in the region, the United States has advanced the G20 and Paris Club Debt Service Suspension Initiative. Five CARICOM member states are currently eligible specifically, St. Lucia, Dominica, Grenada, St. Vincent and the Grenadines and Haiti. For countries in the region not eligible for the Debt Service Suspension Initiative, but which faced debt service constraints, the United States will support swift debt rescheduling through the Paris Club. We encourage potential recipients to develop an economic reform program that can be supported by the IMF and to work with their non-Paris Club, bilateral creditors and private sector creditors to provide appropriate and comparable treatment”.
[00:14:55] They then go on to encourage member states to be aware that they can be in touch with the Department of Treasury’s Technical Assistance Office that is already standing ready to give assistance in areas ranging from economic reforms, tax administration, public financial management, capital market development and infrastructure.
[00:15:18] Now colleagues what does all of that mean? And they go on with other things in the letter and make it clear the opportunities that they will do to support the World Bank and the IDB and their own bilateral support for the region. There is no doubt that this letter is one of the most bold and significant responses from the United States government to our region. And this region has to acknowledge that. You have heard me on different occasions be equally blunt and frank when we feel that we are not being listened to or we are not being heard. I cannot tell the people of the region that that has not happened today because we have received a framework for conversation and I trust and pray that colleague Heads and ourselves will have the opportunity to be able to appropriately respond to the letter that has been sent, I believe in good faith, by Secretary Mnuchin and by Secretary Pompeo, but more importantly, responding in areas that we have been arguing for and asking for over the course of the last few months.
[00:16:22] Does it come without difficulty? No, it doesn’t. Are there difficulties before us economically? Of course there are. Our economies cannot see the decline in revenue and the expansion in expenditure that we are seeing in the last few months and it be business as usual. And it is best that always, we work together, particularly on those types of reforms that will help make us more resilient to be able to take advantage of the circumstances necessary to propel growth in a post-COVID-19 environment.
[00:16:54] Does it mean that we have therefore to sit down and negotiate and see how best it works for us? Of course. And even if we have to relate to international parties, we do so on our terms and circumstances that allow us to be able to frame what is best for us and how best do we restructure aspects of our economy, aspects of our debt to be able to allow us to meet the needs of our population going forward.
[00:17:20] I thank the persons who have allowed us, therefore, to reach this point, and I accept that this is now a platform for discussion with the ball being in the court of the Caribbean Community, to determine what it is prepared to accept within the context of the support that it is finally receiving from countries in the region who appreciate that this pandemic has the potential to destabilize this neighbourhood such that we would not only be facing economic decline, but also the spectacle of migration that has regrettably so accompanied economic recession in so many other parts of the world.
[00:18:01] I do believe, therefore, that with the appropriate time and the incoming Chair’s efforts, that we should respond positively to engaging and seeing where this will take us. With respect to the other issues that we face in the region, the largest one that came to us even before our door is closed with respect to our air services was the issue of cruise. Earlier this week, I accepted the responsibility of co-chairing a task force for the Americas on cruise tourism with the CEO of Royal Caribbean Michael Bayley and I’ve done so not just only to make sure that we can prepare our way to reopening the boundaries for cruise tourism in a safe way and that allows those people within our community to be able to see economic activity again, from vendors to taxi drivers to tourism attractions, et cetera. But they will not benefit if the cruise ships are not come in and the cruise ships cannot come unless there are safe protocols that we are satisfied on and that they are too, as owners of companies are satisfied can work for us.
[00:19:11] We hope within the next two months therefore, to be able to settle those protocols, but we will also use the opportunity to be able to see how best we can deepen our partnerships. The reality is that the Caribbean commands 40 to 50 percent of cruise tourism and we are an inevitable partner of anyone who is involved in the cruise business across the global community. It is for this reason that we asked for a meeting of Heads and the heads of the cruise ship industry earlier this year at the intersessional and that meeting, regrettably, could not come off because of the difficulties with respect to COVID and as a result, we then had a meeting focused purely on protocols that led us also to determine how we are going to literally be able to repatriate the many thousands of persons who some of our citizens, of course, were working there and others to the other parts of the world who were working within our region, but from other parts of the world.
[00:20:11] I therefore hope and pray that our region will deeply collaborate and partner to see how best we can speak with one voice with respect to where we go with the cruise industry in our region and how best we can extract even greater benefits for those citizens who in very many instances are small players within our economy, but who depend strongly on the additional number of persons visiting our countries on a weekly basis on the cruise ships when they come back.
[00:20:41] There is also the issue that we faced with respect to the governance issues within the region. This has not been an easy period for CARICOM and believe you me, we have had, as the Secretary-General said, to deal with a range of issues. Indeed, the number of democratic elections that are being held within this region in this period of time is perhaps one of the most intense periods for any region across the global community. In December, Dominica had elections; in March, Guyana had elections; in June, St. Kitts had elections; in May, Suriname had elections. And there are a number of other countries that are due within the near future to have democratic elections.
[00:21:27] We have, as a region, made it very clear, the values that we stand for, and those are reflected in the CARICOM Charter for Civil Society. Without saying more and doing more, I want to say that we have tried to play our role by ensuring that we are there for members of the Community by being able to send in electoral observer teams. We set them in Suriname. We sent them in, in St. Kitts and in Guyana’s case, we sent in two teams. First, an electoral observer team and then a high-level team that went in after the five Heads of Government visited Guyana when it was clear that there was not going to be an easy ride for the declaration of a result from the March 2nd elections.
[00:22:11] It is regrettable that today, the third of July, there is still no clarity as to the conclusion of that electoral process. But we have said what we’ve had to say on that matter and we await the ruling of the Caribbean Court of Justice. But we also know that we have a duty to support one another. And I say simply this, Guyana has a bright future. Guyana must have a future that makes every Guyanese a winner and not just some. And we trust and pray that we are in a position as a family to work together, but we cannot ignore principles when it is inconvenient to stand by them. I say enough on that matter at this stage and I look forward to us being able to resolve this as a family and to ensure that the values which we reflect as a Caribbean Community are those values which our founding fathers enshrined for us and which we continue to hold dearly, because these are the values that make the definable difference to the kind of democracy that we need to have that is different from that, which the kind of exploitative history that the Caribbean was forged in after its modern settlement.
[00:23:28] As we go forward, we also recognize that there are other difficulties within the Community that continue to have to be dealt with. I am happy that we were able to ensure that a level hand was played with respect to the difficulties being faced by our colleagues in the Turks and Caicos and in the Bahamas with respect to aspects of migration and I believe that there is a framework that allows for easy communication, but that there has to be respect for the difficulties that individual countries face as we go into the hurricane season on top of the management of this pandemic.
[00:24:03] My friends, this has been a difficult six months for the region but I have every confidence that the region can make it. I have every confidence that we will get it together. There are those of you who are deeply worried about the absence of interregional transport with the news that Liat will be liquidated. Let me say at the outset that this is not an easy decision for any of us. But the reality is that Liat has been for us, a critical part of our history. It has allowed Caribbean people to move, but there also is a time when those instruments that served us well in the past may not be the right instruments for us going forward. And to that extent, the Board of Directors, because of the heavy debt, which Liat has been carrying, not now, but for many, many years, have indicated to us that it is no longer possible to trade as Liat 1974 Limited and that in truth and in fact the company is effectively insolvent and that it needs liquidation.
[00:25:13] They would have done so conscious of the fact that unless you liquidate an insolvent company, Directors will be given guilty of fraudulent trading and to that extent, as shareholder governments, we have had to respond simply because to do otherwise would mean providing a level of funding that we simply do not have at this time in the affairs of our Community and in the affairs of our nations.
[00:25:39] The good news is, is that our commitment remains to safe, reliable, affordable travel within the Eastern Caribbean. I asked the Secretariat to prepare a report for me two weeks ago and they were able to show that there are thirty-eight airlines flying within our Caribbean Community, nine of which come from outside. The remaining 29 agreeably are predominantly in the northern Caribbean and it is therefore within the southern Caribbean that the greatest gap exists.
[00:26:08] I am happy to report as Chair of the Community and as Prime Minister of Barbados to my certain knowledge, that since announcements were being made earlier this week about Liat’s demise, that six airlines have come forward offering to fill the space: SVG Air and One Caribbean out of St. Vincent and the Grenadines and the Chairman, I am sure, will speak more to that; CAL, which is already an airline known to the region; Inter-Caribbean, which is an airline from the Turks and Caicos and is a successor airline to Air Turks and Caicos and has been around for over 20 something years with an extensive fleet as well; Silver, which we have asked to meet with us over the course of the next few days, and that is an airline out of the United States of America, but working within the Caribbean and between the US and the Caribbean; and, of course, the Air Antilles which is French-based, as you know, and predominantly between Martinique, Guadeloupe and Paris, but have an interest now, in working within the southern Caribbean.
[00:27:18] We are satisfied that these six airlines can more than fill the immediate gap, particularly given the reduced travel within COVID. Having said that, I hope that we will be able to work with them and other private sector players who have also expressed an interest to being able to see how they can work, either on their own or with some of the existing players in order to be able to fill the gap simply because governments have now to use their funds to be able to deal with health expenditure, to be able to deal with water, to be able to deal with other forms of transport, to be able to deal with the fact that our tourism sector, as well as our vulnerable populations, are all requiring us to hold their hands because they have come to zero revenue.
[00:28:04] Our unemployment, for the most part in the region, in some instances, it has doubled; in other instances, it has trebled. And therefore, we come to this moment not because there is pleasure in coming to this moment, we come to this moment as a matter of practical reality, that governments must focus on keeping their citizens alive, governments must focus on keeping their economies going, and if that focus can allow others to come on board and to be able to help us carry the weight, well, my people in Barbados would tell you that I live by the mantra, “many hands make light work,” and we look forward, therefore, to being able to ensure that the people of the region will be able to have affordable, reliable, safe access to air travel within the next few weeks.
[00:28:51] In addition, as Heads of Government earlier this week, we agreed that those countries that are in a position to help stimulate air travel through the reduction of airline taxes should immediately reflect and see how they can revise so to do, and that similarly, to the extent that licenses and AOC (air operator certificates) are needed, for some of these private sector airlines to be able to connect our countries, that we should proceed to assist as far as possible, being able to use the power of the pen where the might of the dollar is not capable of filling the gap.
[00:29:26] I hope, therefore, as I pass on this Chairmanship to my brother to the person who is the most senior of us within the region as Heads of Government, that we will continue to see the improvements that will endure to the benefit of ordinary Caribbean people. I said at the outset of this speech that I did not want to focus just on technocratic matters and I could have, for the reality is that within the region we’ve done a number of things that have also benefited others over the course of the last few months – in terms of pension arrangements, in terms of the flying of the Caribbean flag, in terms of our regional institutions.
[00:30:09] As I handover to you, Mr. Chairman, I make one simple appeal. I started this by thanking the regional institutions who continue to play an indispensable role in the functioning of our Community on a day-to-day basis; not on a fumarole basis, on a day-to-day basis. I end it now by also asking our countries to recognize that as it is hard for us domestically, it is equally hard for many of these regional institutions to survive. And we have to find a way of resolving once and for all after these decades, a form of financing for regional institutions that allow them to be able to function not with a lot of luxury, but to be able to deal with their core functions supporting the individual needs of Caribbean countries.
[00:31:01] Our community of sovereign nations is premised on functional cooperation. It’s also premised on the kind of cooperation that comes from these regional institutions. We have to find a way of providing that automaticity of financing if we are to make a success of these Caribbean institutions. Without cash, there is no capacity to care regrettably, and that is the reality of what we are facing. These are difficult times. These are challenging times. But I know that a hundred years ago in our own country, we laid the foundation to be able to fight off the oligarchy. And what we have achieved in the last hundred years, nobody in their wildest dreams could have imagined in terms of being able to change the quality of life for so many of our citizens.
[00:31:50] What motivates us today is that there are others who have not gotten on the train. And regrettably COVID-19 and the climate crisis is threatening as well as the public health disease of violence, is threatening to throw others off the train. If ever the Caribbean Community needed to stay as one, if ever the Caribbean Community needed to act as the adult nations that we are, if ever the Caribbean Community needed to be able to band together to allow us to make up for the deficiencies that we have within each territory and to allow the regional institutions to avoid for us the duplication of expenditure on critical areas of governance, it is now. And I pray, Chairman, I pray Secretary-General, I pray colleague Heads of Government, that our populations will give us the strength, the support, the commitment necessary to stay the course, to remain focused and to understand that like with what is happening with this initiative from the US and others, that we will claim ground and move on.
[00:32:59] We have other battles still to fight, like the naming and shaming by the European Union who ought to know better and who ought to recognize that hitting a country when it is down, whether it is Jamaica or Bahamas or Trinidad or Barbados or Antigua or St. Lucia or St. Vincent, as it has in the last few years, that hitting their country when it is down and causing it to face consequences even when the country agrees to cooperate with global standard-setting bodies like the OECD or like the Financial Action Task Force is fundamentally wrong. We do not support bullying in any form. And I have said whether it is in matters pertaining to this family or whether it is matters pertaining to the international community, my mother and father taught me not to shout and not to be shouted at. More importantly, they anchored in me a commitment that says that I will not and we should not be intimidated by family, friend or foe.
[00:34:00] I hope that if we move forward on the understanding that this is going to be a difficult period of time and that those who lived 100 years ago did not have the promise of being able to get out of their difficulties within five years, but endured between 1914 and 1945, 31 years of difficulty – but they endured it – and they laid the platform for us that produced all that you see, that produced the genius within the entertainment and the sporting fraternities, that produced the kind of calibre of persons within our economic structures, our financial structures, our political structures. And we, too, can do like them because we are made of the same stock and we are made together to be able to achieve that which we can do to make the best opportunities possible for Caribbean people.
[00:34:55] We must make Caribbean people global citizens, but anchored by Caribbean roots. I look forward to working with you, Comrade Chairman Ralph. I look forward to working with other colleagues, Heads of Government. We know that this is a difficult time and I want to say farewell to Comrade President Bouterse, who has served well as a brother in arms over the course of the last few years, and to thank him or to ask for commiserations for handing me the Chairmanship of this Community at this very difficult and complex and challenging time.
[00:35:30] We will continue to stay the course and to make this region the best region that it can be standing for rights, standing for principles and standing, most importantly, for opportunity and prosperity for our people. I thank you. I thank you, Mr. Chairman. I thank you for the honour of having served as the Chairman of the Caribbean Community on behalf of the people of the region. It is one of my greatest privileges to have done so and I continue to be buoyed by the wonderful nature of Caribbean people and confident that we, too, shall overcome this period of time. Thank you.