The View From Europe

In the Gulf of Mexico, oil continues to haemorrhage from a deep sea well nearly a mile beneath the ocean and about forty miles off the US coast. 

Just over a year ago I wrote about the enemy within: the criminal Dons and their like who, across the Caribbean, are trying to create states within states.

On May 27 President Obama sent a new US national security strategy to Congress.

Within days of Britain’s new coalition government taking office it announced that it would replace its controversial Air Passenger Duty (APD) with a per plane tax or duty (PPD). 

Nothing illustrates better the contradictions between economic globalisation and the relative powerlessness of states than the struggle under way to stave off the collapse of the euro and economic instability.

Caribbean governments will have to balance economic need against the risk When the oil rig the Deepwater Horizon sank in flames on April 20 few could have imagined that three weeks later the well would continue to spew crude oil into the Gulf of Mexico and threaten the coastal economies of the southern United States and their reputations as holiday destinations.

In recent weeks my friend and colleague, Sir Ronald Sanders, has written more than once about what he and others regard as the failure so far of Caribbean politicians to defend strenuously the economic interests of industries like rum, sugar and bananas in the face of European offers of trade liberalisation to Andean and Central American nations.

Over the last decade or so, starting with rum in 1997, the Caribbean has seen its special trade arrangements with Europe eroded as the EU has sought something close to trade reciprocity with the ACP for either mercantile, philosophical or legal reasons.

Before last December’s climate change conference in Copenhagen, global public opinion was clearly supportive of an internationally agreed initiative to address the man-made aspects of global warming; now it is more divided.

On or around May 6, the United Kingdom will have a general election.

The View From Europe This month, senior Caribbean officials will meet in Jamaica with their European counterparts to consider the nature of the future Cariforum-European Union (EU) relationship.

In Madrid on May 18 the Spanish Government as President of the European Union will host the sixth summit of Heads of Government of the European Union and Latin America and the Caribbean.

No one should be in any doubt about the critical importance of Venezuela’s PetroCaribe programme.

Remember the Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA) signed in Barbados in October 2008?

Is the Doha Round dead? That is a question that few want to ask or answer, not least because of what it implies about changing global relationships.

It is hard to comprehend the scale of the suffering that the people of Haiti have had to endure since January 12.

To almost no one’s surprise the United Nations two-week long Climate Change Conference held in December in Copenhagen ended without any binding agreement being reached on how to regulate global carbon emissions.

The view from Europe In early December the President of the Domi-nican Republic, Leonel Fernandez, was in Europe.

Writing about the threat that soaring levels of crime pose to Caribbean stability, in a week in which most columnists are offering their opinion on rising sea levels may seem perverse. 

It is probable that at some time in the next two weeks Europe will announce that a final deal on bananas has been achieved.