By
Rickey Singh
The Trinidad Express
PORT
SPAIN
Petroleumworld.com
02 19 06
Caricom unites on PetroCaribe
CARIBBEAN Community (Caricom) leaders have concluded their two-day
informal summit in Port of Spain with a show of unity on two
critical issues over which they have been divided:
PetroCaribe,
the 2005 Venezuela-initiated intra-Caribbean oil facility and
related development assistance project; and a Regional Development
Fund (RDF) which is to be inaugurated later in the year with
an initial resource base of US$120 million.
The
leaders were returning home yesterday on a high note of optimism
for Caricom's future, with much smiles and evident camaraderie
after two full working days of their 17th Inter-Sessional Meeting
at the Hilton Trinidad.
They
left behind a beaming host and current caricom chairman, Prime
Minister Patrick Manning, who on Friday night told the media
they had earlier "kissed and made up" on their differences
over PetroCaribe.
Manning
gave no details on the formula for the "one-love"
embrace on the oil facility and development assistance package
associated with PetroCaribe for which Caricom partners, other
than Barbados and Trinidad and Tobago, signed on in June 2005.
However,
the official communique signalled Trinidad and Tobago's "willingness
to facilitate" a suspension of Caricom's Common External
Tariff (CET) for Venezuela's oil to flow to members that are
signatories to the project.
Barbados
Prime Minister Owen Arthur was unavailable for a response to
what the new show of "unity" on PetroCaribe entails
for Barbados which has a special oil facility arrangement with
T&T.
But
T&T, the dominant intra-regional trading partner of the
15-member Caricom, is currently pursuing an initiative for a
bilateral agreement with Venezuela that's consistent with overall
plans to strengthen its position as Caricom's sole oil and gas
exporter.
An
extension of this strategy is T&T's notification to its
partners during the just-concluded meeting, of its pursuit of
a "Caricom partial scope agreement" with the United
States of America on energy and related petroleum products produced
by the country.
This
issue, which is to be considered further when Caricom leaders
meet for their regular annual summit in St Kitts and Nevis in
July for which they hope to report further progress to operationalise
the Regional Development Fund (RDF) for disadvantaged economies,
viewed as integral the creation of the Caribbean Single Market
and Economy (CSME) by 2008.
On
the question of Haiti's renewed participation in Caricom it
was confirmed on Friday night that once official certification
of the results of last Tuesday's elections were known, the new
government would be invited to occupy its rightful place.
