IN UK/CARICOM ECONOMIC TIES
WHEN THE latest United Kingdom/Caribbean Ministerial Forum begins in Grenada this Friday, Britain’s Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, William Hague, should find his counterparts from this region quite keen to discuss his expressed interest in forging a new relationship that  reflects “changes in the global environment” of the 21st century. This Ministerial Forum, originally established in 1998, has emerged as a major mechanism for the Commonwealth Caribbean and its former colonising power to meet once every two years to share ideas and make decisions intended to strengthen relations in their mutual interest.
Since such a meeting occurred in London in July 2008, there have been some sensitive issues of concerns in this region, ranging from problems being encountered on arrival in the UK by CARICOM nationals on legitimate business to:
*The very surprising recent threat by the UK’s Prime Minister David Cameron to review allocation of aid to countries that he thinks “openly discriminate” against gays and lesbians; and
*The level of aid flows for depressed and vulnerable economies and, of course, the related prevailing dispute over the British imposed Air Passenger Duty (APD) levy on passengers travelling to the Caribbean from airports in the UK that has actually pushed stakeholders of the region’s vital tourism industry to consider legal action unless there is a practical resolution.
This week’s three-day forum in the Spice Isle, being hosted by Prime Minister Tillman Thomas, is also expected to find the CARICOM-member states in a more determined mood to collectively pursue a relevant  “aid for trade” strategy with the UK which remains a major aid and trade partner for the region.
The Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) has been playing a key role in facilitating such a strategy which was, for example, the topic of a teleconference that was organszed last October by the Trade Policy Unit of the Castries-based Secretariat of the Organisationof Eastern Caribbean States (OECS).

Timely aid delivery
For the new Secretary General of the CARICOM Secretariat, Irwin LaRocque, he would  most likely be in a better situation to advance discussion on the need for timely delivery of  “aid for trade” resources by the region’s traditional external partners (including the UK), a matter that was addressed last July at the Third Global Review of Aid for Trade in Geneva.
Speaking then in his capacity as Assistant Secretary General for Trade and Economic Integration, LaRocque had emphasised the importance of this region’s international development partners being sensitised to the imperatives of “timely delivery” of aid resources to comparatively small and vulnerable regional economies like ours.
For his part, as leader of  strong and quite representative UK delegation that includes private sector representatives, Foreign Secretary Hague will have the challenge to make explicit his ideas for a “stronger, enduring friendship” and reveal what’s new in his own government’s quest to “bring relations with the Caribbean into the 21st century…”
Hague believes that such an approach “will herald a transition to a more modern, dynamic and forward looking affiliation”. Therefore and assured that he was not about to “throw away all of the strong bonds that tie the UK and the Caribbean region together…”

China and India
Such an assurance at this time when the global economic crisis and  mor specifically the deepening “Eurozone financial woes” combine to further negatively impact on the economies of the Caribbean, the British Foreign Secretary would undoubtedly also be conscious of the growing importance being attached by the two Asian economic giants, China and India, in doing business with our region.
The Chinese spread of trade and economic relations from Jamaica in the northern sub-region to Guyana on the South American mainland would hardly have escaped the attention of either the UK or its closest ally, the USA, where successive administrations in Washington so often still treat relations with the Caribbean as operating in a so-called “American lake”.
While the vigorous initiatives by China to deepen trade and economic ties with the Caribbean on favourable terms cannot be divorced from longer-term political objectives as an emerging world power under constant scrutiny by the USA, UK and their NATO allies, it also becoming evident that India is likewise increasingly competing for business and friendship in the Caribbean-Latin American sphere.   
By Monday, if not earlier, there should be an informed understanding on the outcome of this week’s UK-Caribbean Ministerial Forum in Grenada in terms of  new initiatives to be pursued to enhance relations consistent, with, as Hague said, “changes in the global environment” in this second decade of the 21st century.
Guyana’s delegation to the ministerial forum will be headed by Foreign Minister Carolyn Rodrigues-Birkett.