2 November 2006
Tony Blair joined his counterparts from Barbados, Belize and Guyana in London to discuss ways of transforming the Caribbean economy.
Read the speech in full
Prime Minister:
It is a very great pleasure to be with you this morning at Lancaster House and to speak a this Conference, which arose out of the discussions that I had at the last Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting with various of the Caribbean Prime Ministers. And as someone who is familiar now, thanks to Owen Arthur’s wonderful country, with the Caribbean, you know there are always the two sides, aren’t there. There is the side that you see as a tourist, and the friendliness and the wonderful way that people welcome you in the Caribbean. There is all of that which if you are not careful can be all that you see of the Caribbean, and then there is the part of the Caribbean that Owen and his colleagues remind us all of which is of people struggling in circumstances of great difficulty, handling economic change of immense purport and challenge and trying to make the best of a whole set of different factors that are impinging on the Caribbean in a very, very tough and strong way.
I think that when Owen, Said Musa and Bharrat Jagdeo and myself and their colleagues had this discussion around the time of the Malta Conference they were very frank about the two biggest problems that they faced. There were issues to do with security and crime and so on and also of course there was the economic effect of the loss of agricultural subsidies in particularly for sugar. What I would like to do in my address to you today is to go through some of the issues that have occurred, but also to say how I think these issues can be dealt with in the future.
I think the most important thing, first of all, is to understand that these problems which are the product in many ways of global changes cannot be dealt with by any one government on its own and that is why I suggested that we had this Conference here in London to try and bring people together and work out some common responses to the common challenge that is faced.
We are already trying to do what we can to help. On drugs and crime, for example, we have a well-developed programme of assistance and training for the security sector in the Caribbean. We have been swapping police officers in order to share experience and techniques. The Royal Navy has helped Caribbean Security Services to intercept boats suspected of trafficking. We have a Security Co-operation Plan that is signed between the UK and the Caribbean and the fact that there is good co-operation across the Caribbean is also crucial in this regard. The security chain against drugs traffickers and organised crime gangs is only as strong as the weakest link in that chain. So this is important work that we are doing and frankly we also can see some results from this as well. In Jamaica particularly for example there has been a sharp reduction in major crime this year, in part thanks to these new approaches.
We also know there is a tremendous amount of opportunity on the horizon as well. We are turning our attention, as no doubt you have been for some time, to the Cricket World Cup in March and April next year. Politicians around the world are trying to think of major global reasons for pitching up in the Caribbean around the time of the World Cup Series. Unfortunately as yet I have been unable to find one, but I am counting on you, Owen, for a high level Prime Ministerial invitation! But the "World Cup actually has got a relevance too in the sense that it is a tremendous showcase for the Caribbean. In London we have the Olympic Games in 2012 as you know and the World Cup next year will be a tremendous showcase for the Caribbean. But also, in relation to issues like security and so on, it has got to be right because there are issues there that will be important. And the other thing of course is that it will give a further stimulus to tourism and to economic development if it is handled in the right way. So obviously that is one major event that is on the horizon that we can make the most of.
On Agriculture I know the loss of the EU preferential treatment for Caribbean products, and in particular sugar, is a matter of real concern. Look, this is something we discussed many times in Malta and elsewhere and the truth of the matter is that although the time-line for the removal of agricultural subsidies is an issue in the European Union, the direction of travel frankly in the end is not going to change. The direction of travel, undoubtedly, has been towards eliminating a system where the EU is paying its own farmers, as well as those in the Caribbean, up to 3 times the world price of sugar. In Britain we have frankly been leading the argument within Europe to try and make sure that we spend the European budget more seriously and more sensibly on the issues that confront us in the future.
Caribbean Governments, to be fair, recognise this position could not continue and I am glad that the European Union, I may say after some very strong lobbying from here, look set to provide around about almost one billion pounds in transitional assistance for the Caribbean and other sugar producing countries.
What is really happening here is that there are a number of critical pressures that are in operation. One is the desire within the European Union to reshape how it spends its money and the whole system of agricultural protection. The other is the World Trade Organisation talks and the fact that there will be a major push within that to open up markets further still and within that to have agreements between Europe, America and the G20 countries that will mean eliminating subsidies and barriers over time in Europe and America on the agricultural side and in the G20 countries on the non-agricultural market access. So what is actually happening, therefore, I think is very, very clear. Now we are trying to make the fact that there is a development round into a major point that it is important in the course of this World Trade Organisation round that we ensure that there is proper aid for trade and proper subsidies and help for the poorest countries. But whatever will be happening throughout the course of the next few years, again I am afraid the direction of travel will be very clear. It will be away from agricultural subsidy.
So the question then really is how do we make sure - and this is the purpose of the Conference - that the Caribbean economy faces these challenges, which are inevitable - they may be varied in relation to time but aren’t in fact really varied in relation to the substance of the direction. So how do we make sure that the Caribbean economy can adjust to this process of change. Now I know, Owen, you have been driving forward the Caribbean Single Market and Economy. I think the steps taken earlier this year to bring the CSME into force were a brave and very significant move. I think that is important and one which probably is not as well known about or understood as it should be.
It is actually an important development. I think that further broadening and deepening the agreement will bring real benefit to the region. I think the Caribbean will actually benefit from a rules-based world trading system that promotes a more open and liberal trading system, but it is important to recognise that whatever else happens we have to make sure that we get the right partnership arrangements within the European Union. Now we are already helping build the Caribbean’s trade negotiation capacities through the regional negotiating mechanism and we will help the European Union negotiations deliver a fair deal. The one thing that Britain can do because of its position both within Europe and its historic connection in the Caribbean is to try to make sure that as this process of change happens that we get the best terms of adjustment that are possible.
We also have got to look at what are the new areas of growth. Where are the new things going to come from? The new businesses, the new industries. Where are the new economic opportunities? The Caribbean has a tradition of providing financial services, the building blocks are there to expand this sector, stable democratic governments, well developed communications, a strategic location between Europe, Latin America and the United States. Tourism, of course, is already ahead of the game. I am delighted that the UK support is helping the Caribbean Hotels Association to develop a Caribbean Tourist and Investment Fund. Drawing in new capital that is managed locally in the region will allow for far greater domestic expansion of the sector and then obviously what is important as well is that the Caribbean needs to invest in its greatest asset, which are its people. And I think here again, over the next few years as every country round the world adjusts to economic change the possibility for the Caribbean to develop its education, its skills to make sure that its people are able to add value to the goods and services that are produced will be absolutely essential.
What can we do? There is this process of change that undoubtedly is going to affect the Caribbean and affect it deeply. There is no point in trying to resist these forces of change. We have to try and manage them. We will do our best through the European Union to try to help that process of management. We will do our best as the UK in the partnerships that we have to make sure that we develop the relationship with the Caribbean that allows this process of adjustment and change to happen most beneficially. But in the end, and this is what I found when I was talking not just to Owen, Said and Bharrat last year about this but also in all the conversations I have with Caribbean leaders. In the end the answer is found within the Caribbean itself. There is a process of change that can be managed in the right way if there is the right leadership, if the right policy decisions are taken within the individual countries.
Now this is tough to do. Any of us who are engaged in process of change whether it is in public service reform here or in the rest of Europe or in trying to engage with economic restructuring in the most beneficial way, everybody knows that it is tough to make these changes. People many times will have had a stable system of employment that has grown up over decades. They will be used to it, communities will have grown up around it. You suddenly take that away from people, it is a massive challenge.
The only way of dealing with it however is, as I say, to get the right partnerships with the international institutions, and we will help in that, but you also have to develop the Caribbean itself with a real vision for the whole of the Caribbean as to where its future lies and what it can do. That means taking the strengths, whether in tourism or financial services or in the fact that you have basically stable, democratic governments, that share the value systems of countries such as this, taking those strengths and developing them as far as you possibly can. To do that often requires people to come together and see what the common possibilities are, which is the purpose of today’s event.
It is not going to be easy, this process of adjustment. I think everybody understands that, and some countries will face an even tougher situation than others because when we are talking, for example, about the reduction in sugar subsidies, for some countries this is a big problem. For other countries it is almost existential in terms of the threat that it poses. But the purpose of today is to say if we do come together and we do work out some common approaches, if we develop the strengths of the region, then we can develop them in a way that allows us to overcome these challenges. I am convinced that the leadership is there both politically and in the business sector. What is necessary now is for people to see the opportunities, to map them out, plan how to get there, and then get after it. There isn’t any other way to do it and you know one of the reasons why I was so keen to have this meeting when we first began these discussions some time ago was because I think we have some responsibility as a country to do our utmost to help in this situation. There are ties of history of course but far more important than that the Caribbean countries for us are important allies.
Sometimes I have felt in the past that we have not paid sufficient importance to that in the modern world. Today’s conference is a way of saying actually it does matter to us. It matters to us in terms of all those longstanding traditions and ties, but it also matters because the Caribbean is at a very interesting point of development in a very special and if I can put it diplomatically interesting part of the world. So we should not be slow ourselves here in this country - the UK - to realise that this is not just important for the Caribbean. It is important for the United Kingdom, it is important for our partnerships, it is important for our alliances, it is important for our future. And that is the reason why I am very pleased to come here today and say to you that from my own perspective and on behalf of the government, we know this is difficult but we want to do all that we can to help.
Thank you.
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