Africa and CARICOM Member States Urged to Collaborate for Greater International Influence

Africa and Caribbean Community (CARICOM) member states must join forces to make greater input in important international policy and decision-making institutions and processes.

That was the call from Acting Prime Minister Dr William Duguid as he addressed those gathered at Government Headquarters on Thursday morning for a flag-raising ceremony to mark the second Africa-CARICOM Day.

“Similarly, Africa and the Caribbean, the African Union (AU) and CARICOM, must join forces to establish as a central principle of international law and policy that the nations and peoples of Africa and the Caribbean are now possessed of a fundamental and non-negotiable right to development with the appropriate assistance. Indeed, this principle is at the very heart of reparative justice, the campaign that we in CARICOM are inviting the AU to join us in,” he added.

Duguid reaffirmed Barbados’ commitment to the initiatives and projects agreed to during the first Africa-CARICOM Heads of Government Summit in 2021 – including upholding and strengthening multilateralism, reforming international financial institutions in order to ensure greater inclusion and equitable representation, lifting unilateral economic sanctions and embargoes against Cuba and Zimbabwe, and pressing for reparative justice – and said more work had to be done to make those a reality.

“Without doubt, this is a very relevant and visionary agenda, but it must be acknowledged that two years on, much still needs to be done to operationalise it. Furthermore, one can argue that events that have taken place over the past two years have made the need for Africa and the Caribbean Community to establish institutions of collaboration and coordination even more compelling. I refer to such events as the constantly deepening security, governance and humanitarian crisis in our Caribbean nation Haiti, as well as the military coup in the West African nation of Niger, and the deadly and tragic civil wars that have so scarred the nations of Ethiopia and Sudan,” he said.

Meanwhile, Director of the CARICOM Single Market and Economy (CSME) Unit Leo Preville touched on the need to drive enhanced trade and economic relations between the two regions.

In an effort to address this, he said exchanges between the CARICOM Secretariat and the African Union Commission have resulted in study proposals on several sectors that have high potential for stimulating trade between Africa and the Caribbean, along with the development of a concept note and terms of reference for a consultancy on a possible future Africa Caribbean Free Trade Area agreement.