By Canute James in Kingston .
Financial Times.Published: September 28 2000
Caribbean leaders will on Friday consider proposals from Jean Chrétien,
Canada's prime minister, for the inclusion of Cuba in plans for a free trade
area incorporating all the countries of North, Central and South America and the
Caribbean.
Mr Chrétien is in Jamaica to meet prime ministers and presidents of
the Caribbean Community (Caricom), a 14-member group that has increasingly
strong economic ties with Cuba, and has ignored a US economic embargo on the
island.
Caricom and Cuba signed a free trade agreement in July, to underpin the
generally accepted view within Caricom that integration rather than isolation is
the best method of achieving economic and political change in Cuba.
Friday's meeting is part of Canada's planning for a Summit of the Americas,
to be held in Quebec City next April. The summit agenda will be dominated by
discussions on the creation of a 34-nation Free Trade Area of the Americas in
2005. Mr Chrétien had a similar meeting on Thursday in Guatemala with
Central American leaders.
"We have not yet decided a position on the issue of Cuba's involvement
in the process, and we want to hear what the Canadians are proposing," said
Colin Murdoch, permanent secretary of Antigua's foreign ministry.
"Much will depend on the Cubans as well, and we would like to hear what
they have to say," he said.
However, Caricom is widely expected to support Mr Chrétien's
proposal.
"There is a slow but clear thaw in Washington's approach to Cuba,
although we may have to wait some time before Cuba and the US will sit at the
same table talking about free trade," said a Jamaican government official.
"The Canadian proposal is a further message to the US that its embargo
collapsed years ago."
The Caribbean leaders will ask Mr Chrétien to revise Canada's
position on the region's offshore financial sector, which has been criticised
for offering opportunities for money laundering and tax evasion. | 