Ministry of Foreign Affairs & Foreign Trade
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International Issues Dominate Bureau Meeting
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(CARICOM Secretariat, Turkeyen, Greater Georgetown, Guyana)
Tuesday, November 25, 2008
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Chairman of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM), the Honourable Baldwin Spencer, Prime Minister of Antigua and Barbuda will preside over the 24th Meeting of the Bureau of Conference of Heads of Government of CARICOM to be held in St. John's, Antigua and Barbuda on Saturday 22 November 2009.
The three other members of the Bureau, immediate past Chairman, the Rt Honourable Hubert Ingraham, Prime Minister of The Bahamas, the incoming Chairman, the Honourable Dean Barrow, Prime Minister of Belize and His Excellency Edwin Carrington, the Secretary-General of CARICOM are expected to join the Chairman to discuss issues ranging from the Global Financial Crisis to the difficulties facing the Caribbean Media Corporation (CMC). The Bureau manages the affairs of the Community between full sessions of the meeting of the Conference of Heads of Government.
The agenda for Saturday's meeting is heavily focussed on international issues and their impact on the Community. The Global Economic and Financial Situation's wide-ranging effects including on Tourism and Remittances will engage the leaders as well as External Trade matters involving the implementation of the recently signed Economic Partnership Agreement with the European Union and the proposed Trade and Development Agreement negotiations between CARICOM and Canada. The Bureau will also be brought up to date on a series of upcoming international and hemispheric summit meetings including the CARICOM-Cuba and Latin America-Caribbean Summits to be held later this year on 8 December and 16-17 December in Havana and Brazil respectively. The Twentieth Inter-Sessional Meeting of the CARICOM Heads of Government and the Fifth Summit of the Americas both to be held in 2009 will also be discussed.
Regionally focus will be on the spate of natural disasters besetting Member States, the status of implementation of the recommendations on Functional Co-operation and the difficulties surrounding CMC.
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