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08/16/2004

Web posted in the Barbados Advocate on August 14, 2004

Miller Praises UWI initiative

The decision by the University of the West Indies to offer a Masters
Programme in international Trade has received kudos from Foreign Affairs and
Foreign Trade Minister, Dame Billie Miller.
Speaking recently at the official launch of the programme, she said the
course is a response by the region to deal with the critical issues Barbados
and other Caribbean Community States are presently negotiating.
“The situation we face today is drastically different to what it was some
ten to 15 years ago,” Dame Bille told the function at the UWI.
“Liberalisation, globalisation and, to some extent, regionalisation are the
order of the day,” the Minister said.
“And although each of them can be identified separately, they tend to
support and complement each other, providing the catalyst for change in this
evolving new global economy.”

The Organisation of American States (OAS), and the United States Agency for
International Development (USAID), have teamed up with the UWI to offer the course which is being attended by participants from across the Caribbean including Barbados.

She said that no longer can this region depend on the old preferential
regimes which guaranteed access for Caribbean exports to Europe and North
America, and we can “no longer rely on the protection of other trading
agreements which were previously held sacrosanct by us,” Dame Billie added.
The Barbados Minister remarked that the Caribbean is being called upon to
engage in international trade which has reciprocity as its centre piece.
This means, she told participants, including representatives from the
sponsoring agencies, that “we are being asked to provide market access to
the exports of those very countries which traditionally understood our
peculiar circumstances and have been sympathetic to our situation.”
Dame Billie said the WTO ruling on the EU banana regime should have
transmitted a shrill wake-up call to the region, forcing us from our comfort
zone and engendering urgent vital reassessment of our interaction with the
global trading arena.

According to her, “the recent preliminary ruling by another WTO panel, in
respect of the EU sugar regime, rooted in the official complaints of Brazil,
Australia and Thailand against the EU, threatens yet another vital industry
in the Caribbean.”

The minister added, that as a matter of urgency, CARICOM countries need to
strategically reposition themselves in order to meet the challenges
occasioned by globalisation.