PORT OF SPAIN, Trinidad, CMC- The Trinidad and Tobago government Friday reiterated its position that it was “not invited” to the deliberations that led to the re-election of Dr. Carla Barnett as the Secretary General of the 15-member regional integration movement, CARICOM.
“I emphatically put on the record…that Trinidad and Tobago was not invited by email, telephone, or in person to that meeting where that particular decision was made,” CARICCOM and Foreign Affairs Minister Sean Sobers told Parliament.
Earlier this week, in a brief statement, CARICOM chairman and St. Kitts and Nevis Prime Minister Dr. Terrance Drew said that Barnett, a Belizean national, had been reappointed to the position for another five-year term.
The statement said that the re-appointment was approved by “the required majority” of CARICOM leaders at their summit in Basseterre late last month and gave no further details on the number of regional leaders who voted in support of Barnett, adding that she will begin her second term in August this year.
But Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar, who left the Basseterre meeting before the retreat of regional leaders on Nevis, has since distanced her government from the appointment and has threatened to withdraw funding for CARICOM.
In a detailed statement to Parliament, Sobers said Persad-Bissessar “is not a coward” and had attended the CARICOM summit articulating “quite boldly in her statement to the entire world the shortcomings of the Caribbean Community…as it is constituted in its current format. “I only hope that other leaders, both regionally and internationally, would have the same temerity to provide frank, open, and honest positions on similar issues,” he said, adding that “citizens throughout the Caribbean Community must have confidence in the manner in which all organs of CARICOM operate.
“And CARICOM must operate transparently and in accordance with the revised Treaty of Chaguaramas. Accordingly, the surreptitious nature in which the Secretary-General of CARICOM is allegedly to have been reappointed has done irreparable harm to the institution.”
Sobers said that notwithstanding, Trinidad and Tobago remains committed to the revitalisation of CARICOM, particularly the operations of the CARICOM Secretariat, to ensure “it is fit for purpose and addresses the needs of the people of the region”.
He said Port of Spain appreciates the importance of the CARICOM market to the local and regional private sector, especially given that Trinidad and Tobago is both the largest importer of CARICOM goods and the largest exporter to CARICOM.
“The role of the government of Trinidad and Tobago is to ensure and safeguard the interests of all citizens of Trinidad and Tobago. We must demand that this country be afforded the respect it deserves, especially because we have been the largest contributor to CARICOM’s budget since the inception of CARICOM, which now stands at 22 per cent of the annual budget.”
Sobers said that some of the annual payments made by Trinidad and Tobago to some of the major CARICOM institutions include, TT$35.5 million (One TT dollar=US$0.16 cents) to the Guyana-based CARICOM Secretariat, TT$25 million to the Barbados-based CARICOM Development Fund, TT$1.4 million to the Barbados-based Cribbean Disaster Emergency Management Agency (CDEMA), TT$16.1 million to Trinidad-based CARICOM Implementation Agency for Crime and Security (IMPACS), TT$10.3 million to the Barbados-based Caribbean Examinations Council (CXC) TT$14 million and TT$23 million to the Trinidad-based Caribbean Public Health Agency (CARPHA) and the Caribbean Industrial Research Institution, respectively as well as TT$1.3 million to the Suriname-based CARICOM Competition Commission.
“Mr. Speaker, we are a country that abides by the rules of CARICOM. We conduct our business with transparency and accountability, and we expect the same from all within the community,” Sobers said.
Barnett, an economist, became the eighth CARICOM Secretary General on August 15, 2021, by “unanimous appointment” of the regional leaders.
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