Despite attracting widespread flack for attending a meeting with US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and a few other Caribbean nations in Jamaica on Wednesday, St. Kitts and Nevis Minister of Foreign Affairs Premier Mark Brantley used the platform to advance critical issues affecting the entire region.
Several Caricom Heads trashed the gathering as The United States’ attempt to divide Caricom by not inviting all member states for what the State Department described as a multilateral roundtable discussion with Caribbean leaders where Pompeo would deliver remarks on U.S.-Caribbean relations.
During his brief presentation at the forum, Foreign Minister Brantley urged The Secretary of State to use his influence at the US Treasury Department to intercede on behalf of the region with respect to the growing threat of de-risking.
‘Mr. Secretary I believe we are in a difficult period in our region and one of our concerns we’ve had is this ongoing issue of de-risking, and that is a phenomenon where many of our corresponding banking relationships, mostly US-based banks, are withdrawing from the region. We think this is a grave and present danger to our economies, that for example our cruise industry which is largely dominated by US players, is at risk if the Caribbean region is not able to do banking.
“The difficulty would mean if this continued phenomenon is not arrested then our people and our region would be cut off from the international banking sector; which really would result in our inability to trade, to pay for goods and services. One of the difficulties we’ve had is that a lot of these matters such as de-risking it’s attendant consequences, blacklisting, are largely handled through the Treasury and we recognize we are in the presence of the Secretary of State, but one of the concerns of course is the ability to influence what clearly is a private sector initiative.
“We are the third border to the United States, we think we are definitely within the zone of the Americas that is clearly critical and relevant. The fact that we’re here today having this conversation is demonstrative of the commitment to that relationship and we would really like to see a greater interest from the United States on this particular problem that we are experiencing. We think this blacklisting phenomenon then leads to reputational damage and runs the real risk for us derailing any economic gains we would have made. I think when our economies ae derailed then the consequences are we see mass migration because there is less and less reason for people to stay at home.
“And so we would want to draw this to your attention and to invite the State Department to engage with us in a more active way and perhaps speak to [Alexander] Hamilton’s successor at Treasury to try to assist us in that regard.”
Premier Brantley also raised the issue of Caribbean islands being graduated to middle to high income countries solely based on debt to GDP ratio. He said this ranking precludes these developing countries from accessing concessionary financing and grants, forcing them to have to borrow at high interest rates which inflates their debt levels.
Speaking to Freedom FM following the meeting, Foreign Minister Brantley said despite concerns by some regional heads of government, he felt the meeting served as an excellent opportunity for Caribbean issues to be ventilated. He said the discussions focused heavily on regional priorities of security, education, and climate issues among others.
Responding to Freedom FM’s question if bilateral issues specific to St. Kitts and Nevis were raised with the Secretary of State, Premier Brantley said those were raised during a one on one session with Mr. Pompeo.