Need to Change Approach to Development Assistance Under Trade Agreements – PM Golding

Prime Minister Bruce Golding yesterday (Feb 21) told the first Mexico-Caricom summit in Cancun , that there’s an urgent need to change the approach to development assistance provided under trade agreements which tend to be more focused on policy reform, preparing enabling legislation and technical support for implementation.
These trade agreements he said, should address the building of trade-related structures, expanding trade capacity and encouraging investment.
‘If the global community is not deliberate in its policies and decisions as to how this game of trade is to be played, if trade is not seen as a two-way expressway, we will end up creating a framework supported by rules that will further institutionalize the transfer of wealth from poor countries to rich countries’, Mr. Golding said.
In his presentation on trade and development , Mr. Golding noted that countries in the region could not wage this campaign alone. ‘We need advocates. We need partnerships, and so we look to Mexico to be in the vanguard of that partnership. We do so for good reason. We share the same space and are washed by the same seas. Mexico sits at the G20; but, most importantly, Mexico’s own development experience enables it to understand our circumstances and realities better than many of those we have to meet at the bargaining table’.
The Prime Minister has called for collaboration to expand the region’s capacity to penetrate the vast markets beyond the region.
‘In this way, we won’t have to fight over ever thinner slices of the same cake. We will build a bigger cake and provide greater prosperity for all of our people. Together, we can make a difference….a huge difference. Together, we can place the fulfillment of our dreams not only within our reach but firmly within our grasp’, he concluded.
Today Mr. Golding will attend a two day summit of Unity of Latin America and the Caribbean . This meeting will facilitate the 2010 Rio group summit as well as the second summit of Latin America and the Caribbean (CALC). The summit of Unity will pursue strategic relations in the areas of political co-ordination, co-operation, development and integration among the 23 nations of the Rio Group.