 Good morning all here in the studio and to those online welcome to this press conference which is a prelude to the 40th meeting of the conference of heads of government of the Caribbean community to bring us all up to date on what will take place over the next two day over the following two days on Thursday and Friday and Wednesday as well three days we have with us the secretary general of the Caribbean community is Excellency Ambassador Irwin LaRocque the ambassador the secretary general will make open remarks following which he will take your questions Ambassador LaRocque. Thank you thank you Leonard and let me say good morning to members of the media here and those who are following us understand we are streamed live I want to say a pleasant good morning but I would just thank you very much for being here with us joining I've not given me the opportunity to share with you what the next few days hold for us as you know that we're the 40th meeting of the heads of government will be held here in St. Lucia under the chairmanship of Prime Minister Hon. Alan Chastney who assumed the chair on the first of July we expect a full house of member states all all member states will be represented we'll have 11 heads of government joining us as far as the member states and we have four heads from the associate members so we have a fairly a fairly full house and the other member states are represented at the ministerial level we expect to have two special guests with us Hon. Ernest Solberg the Prime Minister of Norway will be a special desk and will interactive heads and his Excellency Antonio Gutierrez the secretary general of the United Nations will also be here with us for an interaction with the heads the opening ceremony as you may know by now will take place on Wednesday afternoon at 4 30 at the Royalton Hotel there will be four speakers the chairman Prime Minister Chastney the immediate past chairman Prime Minister Timothy Harris of St. Kitts and Nevis and as well as the secretary general of the United Nations he'll also address the opening ceremony and of course yours truly will give some opening remarks the agenda basically will be looking at some of the items that we have been looking for in terms of what progress are being made the current common single market and economy will feature prominently once again you know that we have set some timelines and a work plan that had been agreed to by heads of government and basically we will be getting an update on who was done what and who was not done what and see how we move forward it has been some progress but not as much as I think we all might anticipate and for some of you for good reason the private sector labor and civil society will join us representatives of the private sector labor and civil society will join us for the discussions on the CSME their representative of the the persons who will be using the population at large will be using who have to make make use of the CSME so we'll be hearing from them in terms of how best you know we could make it more usable and user-friendly there's also going to be a discussion proposals by recognizing the private sector original private sector body that will be representative and in have been interlocutor between the various organs of the community and and the private sector we've also I think at the last meeting already recognize the CCL as a associate institution and I guess at some point we have to be doing the same for civil society that is just showing that we're seeking to be more interactive more consultative with with the population at large the stakeholders I should just mention last night I had a very interesting interaction with the youth of the region through the Caracom Youth Ambassador Corps and they two are asking for some sort of an interest so that there can be some some dialogue and and not just tokenism as they put it with regards to representation so the CSME will be one of the major items and and that a link to that is the Commission on the Economy we had appointed a reappointed the Commission on the Economy and the Commission was given one one year to do its work and they started the work in earlier this year and they have to give an interim report the Commission is chaired by Dr. Avi Natchprasad of Barbados and it's made up of a number of prominent individuals not only regional persons but but one or two from from out of the region and they will be given an update on that and that of course is linked to the CSME and is linked of course to the issue of growth and sustainable growth in our region another item on the agenda is blacklisting it's a it's a problem that is not going away many of our countries have been blacklisted many of our countries have done what they've asked to be done and yet they get themselves back on the list the goalposts keep shifting and we have a discussion on a strategy on how to go forward that strategy has been put in place Prime Minister Shasta himself has been leading on that along with Prime Minister Antigone Babu the Prime Minister Brown so I think that's going to be for a very interesting discussion but the issue is that we're being blacklisted and very often we're not even being consulted to see what we're doing that is in member states crime and security will also feature very prominently on the agenda it's a constant there's already very strong cooperation on crime and security but we are seeking to strengthen that cooperation and collaboration among the security apparatus in the region and that's going to be a key point as you know we've been putting some of the regional legal framework in place but I think now we're trying to see how we can even step up greater collaboration along the security personnel as I mentioned to you Prime Minister of Norway will have an interaction and the UN Secretary General will have an interaction and some of the issues that will be raised with them are issues of grief concern to us climate change sustainable ocean economy the Prime Minister of Norway heads a panel on the blue economy which is something that our region is looking at and the pollution of our oceans sustainable development goals these are some of the issues that we will be engaging both of them on and the Secretary General of the United Nations will be hosting a series of very important meetings in September so we'll also give the heads an opportunity to hear about the plans for those meetings as well as to see how we get our views forward on financing for development on the issue of resilience building on the issue of access to financing for the sustainable development goals so we expect very very good discussions with the two of them and since resilience it will be an issue that the Prime Minister Shastri as chairman will be putting forward in terms of what are some of the areas how do we get financing to for resilience it's very easy to get financing after a hurricane but you need to build resilience before the hurricane before the disaster strikes or the earthquake and access to such financing is costly how do we get concessional financing to build resilience so this is another issue we're going to be discussed the other items on the agenda such as science and technology which will be introduced preliminarily and a discussion that would relate to our relations with the African diaspora will also be discussed of course you will we expect the border issues Guyana Venezuela and Belize Guatemala to be also be discussed an update on what's happening there so that basically is a quick tour of what are the the items on the agenda that will be discussed over the hope Saturday on well Thursday and Friday there will be a closing press conference so again we will invite you and be able to report on what actually happened so that's about the tour thank you very much Secretary General we will now take your questions and please remember when you are asking your questions to state your name and the agency which you represent thank you jenica simon from choice tv is it working i'm hoping so um secretary general thank you so much for your time today and for taking our questions um i have a question about csm e uh in 2017 i believe it was jamaica who had a commission to review that country's engagement with caracom and caro forum the report that was issued was shall we say not very salutary in terms of the single market and economy its impact on caracom citizens lives as well as the benefits that um it was bringing to jamaica and by extension the rest of the region could you tell me since that report came out what discussions or what actions have been taken to strengthen the framework and to um make it a better functioning for the lives of caracom citizens please okay you you would recall that the the report as you said came out and it was first tabled in 2017 in montego bay in jamaica and there was a discussion a more thorough discussion when the heads met in special session in trinidad and to bego in december of 2018 and that led to what i referred to what the implementation plan out of that some time lines were set to get some things done and most of those i would say about 19 95 of those things are things to be done by the member states and the time lines were laid out um to carry us over a period of i believe three or four years um that is a plan i referred to that is going to be on the review uh at the at the session today um the trade ministers had had a look at it um because the trade ministers are the ones that are going to be monitoring it more more and more the jamaica commission report raised a number of other issues that pertain to the general operation of the of the of caracom some of which we already have in train um and which is going to be applied to not only the csm but just about every work program that we put in place results based management we have to show results for what we're doing and the caravan development bank has been very very helpful in working with us um financing um a results based management system not only for the secretariat but for the regional institutions as well as for member states we're actually going to be proposing to the member states that they need now need to do that um so that one can be accountable for the commitments that are made um when you when you when you do so at a meeting um very often it's not a secret um commitments are made and the the dates pass and we haven't done it so despite all the work all the groundwork may have may have been prepared so we're going to be having a more focused look i think um prime minister me and what he has really taken up that challenge um and is leading the charge in that in that regard so that is the plan that we referred to that will be reviewed and quote-unquote a report card of sorts will be given today good morning gentlemen uh my question has to do with agriculture and and food security at one of the biggest criticisms of caracum as a bloc is that well some of the criticisms point to that there appears to be no or not that big a move while you see no steps towards actually ensuring food security as it relates to reducing our food import bill um could you speak to us about what steps caracum is taking right now because one of the one of the points that has been raised is that um we as a region as a subgrouping is strong enough should be strong enough for certain countries or certain members to be able to at least supply certain certain foods and certain certain which are native or endemic to to their respective countries as a bit to reducing this import bill so could you speak to caracum's efforts please sure the food import bill is very very significant it's it's modern four billion us dollars in our region the food import bill in itself presents opportunities but it also presents challenges because as you know of that four million dollars if you dissect it down into what are the various types of foods that we import not everything is produced in our region a substantial amount of it is not produced in our region that notwithstanding it leaves the opportunity open for production in those items in which we can produce and we have at the caracum level prepared and adopted a food and nutrition security policy member states have used that it was done in a modular format and member states have used that to develop their own national food and nutrition security policies and some of them have actually gone further and done action plans and the secretary has worked with these member states all along the way in sometimes even providing technical support through funding that we may have received from FAU or one of the other organizations if FAU and IECA have collaborated with us very very much on that and CARDI it's a collaborative effort to work with the member states and where we if I'm not mistaken just about all of the member states technical assistance was provided to the member states to prepare national action plans now what is the status of that I don't have that information at hand but the the issue of food security across our community also has questions of sanitary and phytosanitary you know the standards to allow foods to go in for instance that we're working on as well the issue of transportation is one that we devil's us because if you produce they're the first produce to market on time is another issue so there are a number of issues that we're working on at different fronts that one of the things that will be discussed that has been raised with the private sector mentioned that they'll be meeting with us it will not take place at this setting but it has been done preliminarily how what would what would be needed for the private sector to boost production of various products and of course agro industries are critical one for us what is needed what what what what we do with the CSME is to create the environment to allow for the trade in goods to take place without any hindrance as much as is possible but the governments won't produce the secretary doesn't produce anything in terms of food that is we produce a lot of documents but not food but Peter behave yourself but um but this is the private sector who produced who produced the food and and what is it what is it that that we require for them so that'll be another discussion that we're hoping to have with the private sector at the next sitting but just to follow up to that um I will just point to St. Lucia about four years ago three four years ago where our ministry of agriculture sought to increase the quota of local chicken and to be purchased by our supermarkets and our other our purchase of local chicken and it was met with great resistance by our chamber of commerce and well their members who saw it as a cheaper alternative so my question to you is that would you would you be would caracum be more encouraging of governments to give concessions to their local producers as to reduce those costs of those production costs because I think from what I gather um one of the biggest issues by these retailers those sellers is that the the cost of purchasing locally is too high whereas they they could purchase chicken from the United States at much lower costs um which you hear on the ground these things are sometimes two three years old have been packed and contains their stuff in preservatives so is it time that maybe caracum or those boys should be more forceful um in terms of getting each country uh to you know provide more concessions to their local producers and and businesses in that respect well I don't know what more concessions you refer to because I am aware that um just about all of our member states um I'm not sure if Jamaica has because of the structural adjustment program but just about all of our member states have some system of providing concessions for investments um and I'm not aware I mean I I hear repeated statements being made about not providing the local private sector with concessions but as far as I'm aware there's a system of concessions that member states manage um some of it some of it comes to us in the sense that some of the member states utilize the the framework of the CSME to seek derogations from inputs into manufacturing for instance that allows for these items to import it in that will be to to assist in the in the production you raise a very interesting point however the the private sector is not a homogenous group so you have the producing private sector wanting to reduce and you have the importing private sector saying I want to import and that is why we feel that bringing the private sector together at a regional level a representative group we can't interact with all of these various factions in the private sector and they they propose private sector organization of the Caribbean which is what is maybe coming about um hopefully can help us to bridge that gap um but the the issue of poultry the poultry association poultry association of the Caribbean is very very active they they're one of the groups that we meet with regularly that is at the at the regional level um they're coordinating among they were in producing groups and um we are satisfied that they are producing quality products and they they have the capacity um in some of our countries like in Guyana for instance where the the market base is there um there's had any poultry products imported they sell sufficient I think it's a little more difficult to break even in smaller smaller populations and that's where the the the need to export for economies of scale becomes very important and again the standards for the foods but we have to encourage local production you're pointing to the fact that we import sometimes poultry imported into the region that's that's months and months old and there's nothing nicer than a nice local stew chicken instead of the the frozen stuff that we get so that's another aspect of promoting healthy lifestyles and promoting eating healthy foods which links into our health issues and so on so there's a number of of areas that we have to tackle the production side the promotion of eating what we what we produce always bearing in mind that that chicken is a very the cheapest source of protein in our diets and we have to balance one with the other prime assertions in the government information service sir um what's car come taking a a unified position um on the decriminalization of cannabis what is the position of car you recall that we the heads of government appointed the marihuana commission and the marihuana commission reported the the commission report is actually available on our website for those who would wish to read it and to see what's being done and it is a basis upon which our member states um are utilizing to see how they treat you the matter domestically the commission was an independent commission it was deliberately an independent commission that went out i believe it was able to consult in all but two member states um my memory serves it correctly so they got feedback from a range of different stakeholders those in favor of those are not in favor of um in terms of decriminalization or the use or the medicinal use of the herb um we consulted it as i said a wide so that document is the base document upon which member states would at the national level determine how they treated the matter because you still have contending interest groups at the national level that some say you should not decriminalize on some say you should um keep the status quo as it is um so that's where we are we've done a bit of work it's just a tremendous piece of work it's a little to the public very well informed from the medical standpoint from the social standpoint from the religious standpoint from the impact on youth and the fact that you you're caught in one split when you have a criminal record for for how long all of these matters were taken into account and the recommendations are there the member states now need to determine how they act upon them i'm solar java fred hot seven tv um my question is in regards to disaster management for member states um in regards to assistance after a natural disaster is there a plan in place to aid um if not will this be part of discussions well there is a there is a system in place through cdema the caracom caribbean disaster emergency emergency management unit that triggers a whole host of things immediately after well just prior to disaster when you know it's coming because you can always see a hurricane coming most times you see a hurricane coming um not not on earthquake unfortunately but the hurricanes we can we can predict with a few days and there's a there's a a whole system in place that triggers um immediate post disaster relief um you're going to into the immediate post disaster is like to people's rescuing people and that sort of thing and the more long-term thing is to now generate aid and that that system in in terms of it includes the donors as well and they meet regularly um not only during a disaster pre-hurricane season so already they've met um that is a group that is chaired by the head of cdema the deputy chair is the head of undp and undp coordinates united nation development program coordinates if they're the donors and we see the donors so that is there but we're looking to see now how do you strengthen that because the experience we had with the hurricane season in 2017 when i believe nine countries of the caribbean community nine countries in the caracom were affected if you include sen sen sen martin and how do you where we had a substantial caracom population that that were of interest to all of our member states how do you strengthen um what we have in place um to provide assistance for a longer term and and going before that as i mentioned before what how do how do member states access the resources that is necessary to build resilience and that is not only about seawalls and bridges you know resilience is about resilience in terms of of the social resilience the economic resilience and those are some of the things that we're looking at we're actually doing very quietly some work with cdema with undp um it's not yet ready to to reach the stages of heads for a proposal on how you strengthen that mechanism but it's it's very much in place in the meantime we're strengthening our relations with those countries who have come to assistance um france in other lands united states the british in terms of having a more quality response to disasters good morning joshua sentemi from the salacious star i'm going back to the cannabis question and csm me on a whole with some countries moving forward with legislation do you believe that with others not doing so that this can pose a threat or so to csm me well cannabis is not related to csm in any any way shape or form it's not so i i'm not understanding talking about the free movement of people and money and goods um no cannabis you you need to understand cannabis right now is a bansome stance for international trade you know it is governed by a protocol at united nations and you know country um is allowed to trade in marijuana marijuana products unless it's under some very i know there's some some the question of how do you treat with with medications that are derived from the cannabis but the plant and even that is under some discussion even within united states where some of the states have liberalized you can't transport the herb across the state waters state lines so we're not encouraging anybody to one start moving with marijuana you will be arrested there's not a lot about it you know we are moving a banned substance but what we've done is looking at decolonizing marijuana in at a national level not about trading in the now we see a potential for medicinal marijuana there are persons in our region who have done a lot of research on it in jamaica in particular and i believe my memory is correct that they may even have patented is it what patent the certain medications that are derived from it and research is ongoing and a number of member states are looking at how do you use that as a part of the industry the pharmaceutical industry that will be a very controlled industry which is different than individuals having um for recreational use of original use to not try to cross the border with marijuana you're going to be arrested and and for those countries where it's not decriminalized you you have to respect that the laws are still there until the government takes action the laws are still there you have to respect the laws good morning jessie leance a carb update uh let's go back to the advancing of csma the commission on the economy you mentioned earlier that there has been some progress but not as much as you as as would have been anticipated can you speak to the extent of of what has not been done perhaps give us some insight based on what you know i don't want you to let the cat out of the bag for dr persaud but if you could give us some extent uh as to what has not been done and how it will hamper our progress going forward from this week well i think the the commission on the economy is looking at the growth the bigger growth issues and not necessarily at the implementation plan on the csma that is separate i've linked it to because the csma provides a platform for economic growth so his the the the commission will look at it more at a macro level some of the issues that are plaguing us and growth debt debt management and those sort of things on terms of the in terms of the um the um csma plan there's for instance give you an example of issues where i think that we are lagging behind that ought not to be lagging behind the heads of government have agreed so far on 10 categories plus two for free movement in our community i say 10 plus two because we have agreed on two additional but the technical work to govern to to inform what would be the requirement for movement is still being done so it is not yet operationalized but the 10 categories plus our culture workers and security personnel um is what we're looking at as two new categories to be added of the 10 that have already been agreed member states who given the opportunity to pass the legislation and in the interim having not passed the legislation because we know legislative agendas take time to um put in administrative procedures the ccg recognizes that member states can do that those who have passed the caricum community act you can do that and those who have passed and all of our member states have passed the caricum treaty into law so any obligation that comes out of it they ought to be able to use administrative procedures to allow it to happen what we're finding that there's still member states who are not who have not passed the legislation but worse yet who have not put all of the administrative procedures in place to allow for that and that's what we're going to be looking at i'm not going to be calling names right now because persons i know we've had a series of meetings since the december meeting in december one on one of the member states and that has proven to be very very helpful and sometimes it's lack of understanding you know i mean i i hate to say that but on on what needs to be done at the member state level i'm sorry to put it that way but the capacity doesn't seem to be there to go ahead and do what has to be done so we're finding that since we've been having these one-on-one meetings with the member states individually technical staff at the csma unit and that's some of we've seen some progress already from december but we need to do more of that more the more the hand holding unfortunately we have to do more of it we have a question online i understand yes we do um it's from um facebook on caricum facebook uh from uh eddy lane news update gianna what is caricum's position on the current political climate in gianna following the passage of the december 21st no confidence motion and what appears to be a position by the government to ignore the consequences and basically they're asking what is the position of caricum well the matter is before the courts it is what you call was that famous subject the same and the community has a standard policy when matters of before the courts you let the court do what it has to do the court will the court has met the ccj has met they met on the and they're going to meet again on the 12th of july and we have to wait to see what happens um we've been mourning i personally have been monitoring the situation very very closely i live in gianna this is my temporary home i have met with the the president i've met with the opposition on more than one occasion so i'm receiving information the views but i am not going to make any public pronouncement until we know what is the situation the court has to pronounce and if um we see what happens afterwards if if the pronouncements or the judgment is the subsequent judgments are there to then there's a problem but until the judicial process is in review i know people persons are impatient but there's there's room for the judicial review it's there and we must allow this to happen and we see what happens after the 12th of july we have two more questions president of Haiti coming to the summit yes he is will caricum therefore look at the situation unfolding in Haiti to be expected there will be a discussion a discussion i notice when you ask when you did your opening statement you made no reference to the conflict the ongoing conflict in Venezuela given the fact that at the latest situation at the oas where you still had st lusia bahamas Haiti and the dominican republic and another caricum in and for caricum countries voting for a an oas resolution that more or less recognizes the representative of the opposition leader one guaido is caricum split on that issue or are we still maintaining quote unquote a fact uh i i don't want to use it but but just but just but just uh but just uh for camera's sake that they're united absolutely not there are issues it's not as you point out there are issues upon venezuelan upon which some member states have a different view but there's a common view on a number of issues that we adhere to very very strongly the principle of non-interference non-intervention the issue that there must be dialogue um between the opposition and the government the issue of non-politicization of aid the issue that there must be a peaceful resolution the issue of the peace of the recognition of the constitution and the rule of law all of which are principles up to this day that every single member state whether they recognize one guaido or not or they recognize um president maduro or not adhere to those principles as they think from others who are demanding that you know there be regime change or other other avenues we cannot afford any kind of this thing to escalate kind of violent confrontation you know in in in venezuela venezuela is part of the caribbean in terms of the caribbean sea washes venezuela the neighbors the closest neighbor what the two closest neighbors to bar in colombia to venezuela is is is going on trinidad to bego and their consequences already we're seeing the consequences for trinidad to bego in terms of what's happening in venezuela with the number of refugees who are entering and the negative impacts some of that may have on the on the community and it's not only as far as these two countries they're moving up they're moving up the chain of islands so the region remains very united on these principles of non-interference non-intervention dialogue we and we were the we were the voice in the wilderness they said how could we ask him for dialogue on the situation so bad but guess what there is dialogue taking place and we have the the small group of heads have reached out and have done some things and now we hear another country um is is is um um allowing for dialogue to take place so the community was spot on in terms of what the principles are here to given that um norway seems to be moving towards this situation in venezuela will that be a topic discussed at this meeting venezuela would be a topic to be discussed while i'm asking would yes venezuela have been discussed with norway at this meeting well norway has taken a position of as you have seen in the media of not making any public pronouncements and rather at this point not to comment on as to whether or not there will be a discussion with norway i have to respect norway in terms of how they're proceeding for more for more accounts that they are they are making some they are making some progress this will be the third meeting i believe that's going to be held next week um and i think we have to respect the process and respect the the silence on on this for the time being let us see what if there's anything that we could we could talk about afterwards but for the time being i would rather not comment on that final question yes thank you jenika simon again from choice tv this is uh somewhat of a follow-up um to my colleague about venezuela you mentioned that trinidad and gayana have seen the biggest impact in terms of human movement out of venezuela is there any intention at this meeting or other meetings to have a carricom approach to not the political crisis but the humanitarian crisis what do we do with venezuelan migrants making their way up the chain is it fair for individual countries to have to bear the full brunt of having these migrants enter their borders or is this something that carricom can agree on a unified approach to easing that uh humanitarian situation well the issue of the issues of of refugees is one as you know that is not unique to our region we we know what's happening in other parts of the world and it's these things that issues are governed by international conventional international law um and basically the region subscribes to those issues of course the the costs of these things can be quite prohibitive um and these two countries uh especially trinidad and tebago that's where the the greatest number thus far um so we are prized of what is going on and is there a common position i think um the the other countries are not experiencing anywhere near that the only other countries i understand that um which uh well they're not even associated with us i'm speaking ahead of my time i was about to mention aruba and quirozo but they're not part of us yet so i know they're also experiencing there is a change of information i'm sure we'll be brief on what's going on um but it's an issue i i from what i can understand read in the media and and some of other conversations that trinidad is trying its best to handle and and gianna as well gianna having such a vast border borderline um territory territory border with bennie's weather are we are we as carricom kind of leaving our sister countries of trinidad out out to drive not at all they are they are the ones that are not at all not at all we're not leaving out to drive but i don't know what what else would be expected them of of the rest of the community in that particular instance as of now um let us see what happens that i'm sure some of these issues we discussed so we know what what is happening to regularize the persons who come in and um let's see what happens with that thank you very much the members of the media thank you very much secretary general and we look forward to a very fruitful meeting and the press conference at the end where i hope to see as many of you as are here today thank you very much let me add my own words of thank you to members of the media thank you very much