PORT OF SPAIN, Trinidad – Trinidad and Tobago and Jamaica Monday moved closer towards enhancing their existing cooperation in several areas including trade, security as well as sports and athletics as the two CARICOM countries seek to take further advantage of the CARICOM Single Market and Economy (CSME).
Prime Minister Andrew Holness, speaking at news conference (CMC Photo)Both Prime Minister Dr. Keith Rowley and his visiting counterpart, Andrew Holness acknowledged the importance of the CSME, which allows for a free movement of goods, skills, labor and services within the 15-member regional integration movement, as they sought to deepen their relations.
“We had a couple of our discussing our circumstances and I can tell you that the outcome of that has confirmed that the circumstances of governing Jamaica, the challenges of Jamaica are virtually identical to the circumstances and challenges of Trinidad and Tobago.
“That means the decisions we have been taking and those of you who would have seen what is happening at the CARICOM level, an intensity of activity at the leadership level, Jamaica, Trinidad and Tobago, Antigua, Guyana and Suriname…and I simply want to indicate that this is a commitment from the current pool of leadership that time is not on our side,” Prime Minister Rowley told reporters.
“We have discussed a number of areas where we can cooperate more collaboratively, where we are committed to doing so and we have some very interesting actions to come,” Rowley added.
Prime Minister Holness, who is here as guest of the twin island republic which on Wednesday observes its 60th anniversary of political independence from Britain, told reporters that six years ago, his administration had invited a newly appointed head of government in Trinidad and Tobago to visit Kingston in order to help diffuse a trade war between the two CARICOM countries.
Prime Minister Dr. Keith Rowley at news conference (CMC Photo)
“I must say when Prime Minister Rowley visited Jamaica, we were very happy…and it started a movement towards enhanced cooperation between our two countries. As a result of that we were able to create a pathway to deal with trade complaints and today we signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) on that cooperation.
“That pathway IO believe has been very useful for both our countries improving trade relations. We today discussed important issues to do with the structured free movement of skilled labor in CARICOM.
“There has been, I would say sometimes more talk than action on the realization of the CARICOM dream. A dream that great men like Eric Williams (Trinidad first prime minister) would have wanted to see materialize realizing that the greater our cooperation the mutual benefit for all is assured,” Holness told reporters.
“I want to say thanks to Prime Minister Rowley7 for backing up the expressions of fulfilling CARICOM with actual action in legislation and implementation to recognize legislatively certain skills areas of labor that can move freely in CARICOM.
“The CSME is only going to materialize when you not only have free movement of goods but also free movement of labor and free movement of capital that allows for a more efficient allocation of resources, it allows for the expansion of trade and opportunities and it brings life and meaning to this business of regional integration.
“We often times want to see ourselves as competitors, that’s healthy, that’s natural, but there is another dimension we have to also see ourselves as partners and that is also healthy and beneficial to all of us,” The Jamaican prime minister said.
Holness said during the deliberations on Monday, the meeting also looked at national security “from a multi-dimensional perspective, cyber security …and then there is the real issue of crime and violence and we delved into that issue.
“But there is a commonality which we have observed. Prime Minister Rowley has been speaking on that, I have seen many of his statements …and one of the statements that caught my attention was Prime Minister Rowley’s declaration that violence is a public health issue and we have been saying this in Jamaica as well,” Holness said.
“We really need to take a public health approach in looking at why is it that violence features so heavily in our social transaction,” Holness said, adding that both himself and Rowley have “shared notes on what our respective governments were doing.
“We are going to be collaborating more closely on this issue,” he said, adding “on the issue of national security I would report we are making significant progress”.
The two leaders also discussed “areas where we have natural talent in culture, sports, music, carnival, athletics and we have agreed we are going to collaborate much more closely in these areas.
“We will be inviting schools from Trinidad and Tobago to participate in some of our sporting competitions in Jamaica and we will be exploring ways in which Jamaica can benefit from the incredible costume design talents that are here in Trinidad and Tobago amongst other areas of collaboration,” Holness told reporters.
