The recently held 51st Regular Meeting of the CARICOM Heads of Government in St. Lucia discussed a number of issues critical to the region with the aim of solving some of those issues in the short term.
One area that has attracted the attention of regional prime ministers is the rising cost of leaving that is continuing to plague Caribbean territories.
Speaking at the closing press conference of the July 5th to 8th Heads Meeting, newly installed CARICOM Chairman and Prime Minister of St. Lucia Philip J. Pierre told gathered journalist that regional leaders were cognizant of the financial strain that has engulphed CARICOM states. The St. Lucia Prime Minister said the Community had reached agreement on the way forward and it was focused on a better organized regional approach to this crisis.
Barbados Prime Minister Mia Mortley reinforced the statement. “We are sharing with each other the measures that we have taken. Invariable, those measures relate to reduction of taxes on fuel imports, making adjustments to the cost of freight. In our case in Barbados we’ve also determined that for the charging of taxes we would use FOB rather than to use the cost including insurance and freight which would simply inflate the cost of goods.”
The Barbados Prime Minister stressed that one of the most important projects for the Caribbean Community was the reduction in cargo to better facilitate more intra island trade. “It is against this back drop that the long-awaited ferry is something that we are working on assiduously.”
Prime Minister of Trinidad and Tobago Kamla Persad Bissessar has reportedly agreed, pending private sector arrangements, to utilize a T&T vessel as “proof of concept” while negotiations and regulations are put in place for a regional rollout.
The T&T prime minister, who fully endorsed the sentiments of the PM Mortley, said there were other initiatives that CARICOM states needed to collaborate on while agreeing on the absolute importance of the regional ferry service.
The regional service, according to PM Mortley, is a work in progress but assured that the CARICOM Heads were committed to the cause in the quickest possible time.