Have Your Say! CARICOM/CARIFORUM Review Commission Invites Public To Submit Comments

Here’s your opportunity to offer your thoughts on items for consideration by the CARICOM Review Commission, which I wrote about recently. Here is a press release from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade dated July 19. DEADLINE IS AUGUST 31, 2016 – plenty of time to gather your thoughts and submit your recommendations. Please share this with anyone who may be interested in having a say…

Former Prime Minister Bruce Golding, Chair of the CARICOM Review Commission. (Photo: Jamaica Observer)

The Commission to Review Jamaica’s Relations within the CARICOM and ACP Cariforum Framework (CARICOM Review Commission) is inviting the public to submit suggestions that would facilitate a more comprehensive and inclusive review process – this according to Committee Chair and former Prime Minister, Mr. Bruce Golding.

Submissions to the eighteen-member Committee which has met two times so far, following its first meeting on Tuesday, July 5, at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade (MFAFT), can be sent to caricomreviewpub@mfaft.gov.jm on or before August 31, 2016.

The public is also being advised that the e-mail communication should include the sender’s full name and contact information. The recommendation/s should not be in the body of the email, but should be an attached Word or PDF document.

Below are the main points of the Commission’s Terms of Reference (TOR), which the public may use as a guideline in submitting recommendations.

• Evaluate the effects that Jamaica’s participation in CARICOM has had on the country’s economic growth and development
• Analyze CARICOM’s performance against the goals and objectives of the revised Treaty of Chaguaramas
• Review the CARICOM arrangement in light of the wider Caribbean, inclusive of the Dominican Republic and Cuba, as well as other Caribbean territories
• Assess the value of Jamaica’s membership in CARICOM on its influence in critical international fora and with third state trade and development partners
• Assess the benefits from the coordination of foreign policy positions within CARICOM
• Assess the benefits that Jamaica has derived through functional cooperation within CARICOM institutions and its framework
• Consider the question of the enlargement of the membership of CARICOM
• Assess whether the CARICOM dispute settlement provisions provide realistic options for settlement of disputes for Jamaica
• Examine arrangements for the enforcement of decisions within the regional integration framework

In his address to the Commission, Mr. Golding had emphasized objectivity as a crucial element of the Commission’s review process. He noted “We need to be objective and therefore able to identify and acknowledge where and if our own policies and actions have caused us to be victims of the integration process.”

Contact:

Ann-Margaret Lim

564-4241