CARICOM tells Bush to renew CBI deal

Three Caribbean leaders are calling on the U.S. government to extend the Caribbean Basin Initiative (CBI), which gives exporters in the region duty-free access to American markets for most of their goods. The agreement expires in September.

Prime Ministers Hubert Ingraham of the Bahamas, Dean Barrow of Belize and David Thompson of Barbados met last week with U.S. President George W. Bush and raised the issue.

The CBI was established in 1982 by President Reagan to assist countries in the region struggling to survive in the aftermath of the oil boom. It was also a perk for nations that sided with the U.S. in Cold War politics and demonstrated commitment to "free market" principles.

At that time Reagan was increasing worried about the influence of the Soviet Union in the Caribbean with Cuba, Nicaragua, Guyana and Grenada all having governments that were pro-Moscow. The CBI became an important strategic plan to punish those states.

The CBI is not a trade agreement and was not designed for that purpose.

Rather, it was a non-reciprocal grant, by statute of a cold war "anti-communism" commercial program, which was extended in 1999 through the "CBI NAFTA parity" Act, providing special duty-free access to the U.S. market for textiles, apparel and other goods made in the 24-country CBI region.

The CBI region includes the Central American countries of Belize, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Guyana, Honduras, Nicaragua and Panama. Nicaragua was excluded from the original CBI plan because of its leftist regime led by Daniel Ortega. Interestingly, Ortega was returned to office last year.

In the Caribbean, it includes Antigua, Aruba, the Bahamas, Barbados, British Virgin Islands, Dominica, Dominican Republic, Grenada, Haiti, Jamaica, Montserrat, Netherlands Antilles, St. Kitts and Nevis, St. Lucia, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, and Trinidad and Tobago.

Ingraham, who is the current chairman of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM), says he and his colleagues raised several issues with Bush, including the CBI, tourism and the economic impact that is being felt in the region from the escalating price of oil.

Ingraham described the talks as "frank". He said they discussed the need for people to travel freely.

"We talked about how to make sure that our security needs are met without interrupting the ability for our people to travel as freely as possible and for the ability of people to be able to make a good living as a result of tourism," he said.

"We had a discussion like you would expect neighbours to have." He said Bush acknowledged that the U.S. and the Caribbean must live as good neighbours and assured the CARICOM delegation that the U.S. would "continue to be engaged in the region."

"We often times talk about dealing with the Middle East or dealing on the continent of Africa, but it was important for these leaders to know that we believe that a good, strong, healthy, vibrant neighbourhood is in the interests of the United States. So we had a good, friendly, important discussion, and I can't thank the leaders enough for coming," Bush said.