Jamaica’s Simpson Miller: CARICOM Countries Must Support Regional Trade

Above: Prime Minister Portia Simpson Miller

By the Caribbean Journal staff

There is a need for greater support from CARICOM countries in strengthening trade within the region, according to Jamaican Prime Minister Portia Simpson Miller.

Simpson Miller made the remarks during a courtesy call this week with Dr Iva Gloudon, Trinidad and Tobago’s High Commissioner in Jamaica.

The Prime Minister said the Caribbean Community need to “take a stronger position” on issues impacting the people in CARICOM.

In a series of interviews with Jamaican candidates before the election, several then-candidates who are now members of the Jamaican Parliament said they supported improved integration in the region.

At the time, MP Damion Crawford, now Minister of State in the Ministry of Tourism told Caribbean Journal that Caribbean integration was “at threat.”

“If you look at where the world is heading, you would realize [integration] is where we have to go as small nations within the Caribbean,” he said. “Because if we don’t have a central market, with a central dollar system, we will be lost in the hurricane that is coming in this new globally connected world.”