The View From Europe

More than a decade has passed since the EU-CARIFORUM Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA) was negotiated and signed.

A few days ago, China’s President, Xi Jinping, addressed the opening of this year’s Davos World Economic Forum.

In the dying days of the Trump Presidency the US State Department designated Cuba a ‘State Sponsor of Terrorism’.

Tomorrow, Joe Biden will become the forty-sixth President of the United States.

Last year was a disaster for Caribbean tourism. Estimates suggest that visitor arrivals to the region fell by 75% in the last three quarters of 2020 causing overall Caribbean economic growth for the year to contract by 6.2%.

Very soon, possibly by the time that this column is read, the European Union and Britain will have decided on the nature of their post Brexit relationship.

It is hard to know what the future holds for Venezuela, its opposition leader Juan Guaidó, or the present US-led policy that emphasizes sanctions and isolation.

Intensely national in character, environmental protest is on the rise across the Caribbean.

This was the year when much of the Caribbean went to the polls.

In the last few days, Pfizer BioNTech a German-US company, and the US company Moderna have separately announced that that the COVID-19 vaccines they have been developing have proved ninety-five per cent effective.

It is easy to share the excitement felt across the Caribbean at President elect Joe Biden’s victory in the US polls.

From Bridgetown’s Carlisle Bay to England’s south west coastal town of Weymouth, cruise ships berthed offshore and out of service have become a familiar sight.

A few days ago, the US Ambassador in Kingston, Donald Tapia, gave an exclusive interview to the Jamaica Observer.

By mid-November, the outcome of the saga of Britain’s withdrawal from the European Union (EU) will be known.

A little earlier this month, the University of the West Indies’ Shridath Ramphal Centre published a policy paper that called for a new, integrated regional approach to post-COVID Caribbean economic recovery. 

“The IDB (Inter-American Development Bank) will work with the region to boost investment through greater integration and nearshoring.

In August, the price of gold reached a record high of US$2,073 per ounce.

Speaking recently at Bocas Lit Fest, Jamaica’s former Prime Minister, P J Patterson, observed that in recent years there had been a “deliberate attempt” to split the Caribbean.

Despite the understandable desire by some in tourism to talk up a ‘return to normal’, it is hard to avoid the conclusion that the industry’s recovery from the pandemic will be slow and uncertain, largely because infection rates in the region’s principal overseas markets continue to rise.

Over the last twelve months the Caribbean has been able to demonstrate through the ballot box that its democracies remain strong.