[NYTr] Caricom Wraps Up Summit, Urge Justice for Posada
ny...@olm.blythe-systems.com
excerpted from VIO Venezuela News Roundup - July 8, 2005
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Venezuela_News/
CARICOM Wraps Up Summit, Plans Free-Trade Zone
Caribbean Leaders Urge US to Bring Terror Suspect to Justice
AP via Wall Street Journal - July 7, 2005
http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,BT_CO_20050707_007920,00.html
CASTRIES, St. Lucia (AP)--Caribbean leaders agreed small countries should
get preferential treatment in a proposed single market economy, but
accepted the Bahamas' refusal to join because of widespread fears of an
influx of migrants from poor neighbors.
Leaders of the 15-nation Caribbean Community, who wrapped up a four-day
summit in St. Lucia on Wednesday, announced Thursday that small eastern
Caribbean nations would be allowed to protect sugar and other agricultural
industries that are bracing for changes in the European Union's quota and
pricing systems.
Caricom, as the regional bloc is known, reiterated its commitment Thursday
to establishing the single market economy by year's end.
Only Trinidad and Barbados say they are ready to enter the single market,
which would harmonize trade tariffs and allow skilled workers to migrate
freely within the region.
Although joining the market had been a requirement for staying in Caricom,
leaders accepted the Bahamas' decision to bow out following a public
outcry over fears that migrants would rush to their comparatively
wealthier country.
The Bahamas is already coping with a flood of illegal migrants, mostly
Haitian boat people trying to reach the U.S. Bahamian officials have not
ruled out the possibility of eventually joining.
"In the circumstances of the particular position of the Bahamas, the
status quo of its present relationship and involvement in Caricom
institutions should be maintained," the leaders said in a communique.
Caribbean professionals are already allowed to migrate within the region
if they prove their credentials beforehand. The single market would extend
the privilege to all skilled workers and allow them to work in other
countries while their credentials are verified, the leaders said.
Caricom leaders also resolved to send the leaders of St. Kitts, Jamaica
and Guyana on a European tour this month to lobby against an E.U. proposal
to cut guaranteed prices for sugar imports by 39%. Caribbean sugar
producers want the cuts to be smaller and implemented over eight years
rather than the proposed two, warning their economies could lose $100
million a year.
Caribbean countries "protest in the strongest terms the severe and
dislocating loss of benefits" that would result if E.U. governments
approve the cuts, the leaders said.
They also urged the U.S. to help bring to justice a Cuban exile wanted in
Venezuela for the 1976 bombing of a Cuban jetliner, jumping into a debate
that has deepened tensions between Washington and the South American
country's leftist government.
Venezuela has requested the extradition of 77-year-old Luis Posada
Carriles, a Cuban exile and one-time CIA operative who was arrested in
Miami in May after slipping into the U.S. Venezuela wants to try him for
allegedly masterminding the attack from Caracas.
Although Caribbean leaders stopped short of calling for Posada's
extradition, they called for perpetrators of the attack "to be brought to
justice so as to bring closure to this egregious incident that caused so
much pain to the people of the region." They called Posada the "primary
suspect" in the bombing.
The jetliner exploded shortly after taking off from Barbados, killing all
73 people on board. Posada has denied involvement. He has been charged
with illegally entering the U.S., in a case that could lead to his
deportation to another country or a jail term in the U.S.
The U.S. has said it will not bow to pressure from the Venezuelan
government and has said the case will be handled by the courts.
*
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