Caribbean-US relations: chance to merge with right
By Sir Ronald Sanders
Kaieteur News- Events in Washington on January 20 were a welcome release and release to the world.
Once Joseph R. Biden took the oath of office as President of the United States and struck the noon hour as Donald Trump arrived, as a private citizen, to his Florida estate, ordinary leaders and citizens sat in every corner from the breathing-out world the breath-taking group of distress they had held for four turbulent years.
In his first official actions – signing 17 Executive Orders – President Biden dramatically improved relations with the world, including the Caribbean, and gave reason for optimism about the future.
Importantly, the United States will rejoin the Paris Climate Change 2015 agreement from which Trump withdrew. It should be remembered that the US is one of the world’s largest contributors to global pollution and the damaging effects of climate change.
Writing to Biden, just hours after he sworn in as the 46th US President, Antigua and Barbuda’s Prime Minister Gaston Browne, as Chairman of the 44-nation Small Island States Alliance, welcomed the US Government’s new decision. Browne told Biden: “We are already failing to limit global average temperatures to a rise of 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels. It is urgent: (i) to adapt the engines for global financial flows, including through International Financial Institutions, to ensure that each country is served according to its needs; and (ii) provide resources to allow the most vulnerable countries to adapt to the current scary conditions and prepare for future negative events. “
This is work that must be an urgent item on the agenda of US-Caribbean negotiations, including early contact with former US Secretary of State John Kerry, whom Biden has appointed as Climate ambassador.
Of particular significance to Caribbean countries, during the devastating period of the COVID-19 pandemic, is that the United States will not withdraw from the World Health Organization as Trump had intended. Indeed, Biden appoints Dr. Anthony Fauci, now renowned, the government’s leading infectious disease specialist, to lead the US delegation. This should mean that the US would play a constructive leadership role.
Also important is the availability of vaccines to Caribbean countries, which have been allocated numbers equivalent to less than 10 percent of their populations, and an end to hoarding policies by the US and some other countries. priorities for Caribbean-US debate.
No country will be immune from the Coronavirus if it exists and thrives in any other country. Therefore, it is as much in the interest of the US as it is for its neighboring Caribbean for the smallest number of vaccines, allocated to the region, to be reviewed and corrected.
President Biden has also forced the wearing of masks on Federal Government property and installed a coronavirus response coordinator to oversee efforts to distribute vaccines and medical supplies in the US. This is also essential for the countries dependent on Caribbean tourism that need US citizens to be free. of the coronavirus and ready to travel as soon as possible. It’s a tough task. The problem was allowed to grow out of control, bringing the United States to its knees with high rates of infection and death. All encouragement and support should be given to Biden’s efforts.
Domestically, the President is also pushing for economic relief including more money for unemployed workers and for safety net programs, especially Medicaid and unemployment insurance. The revival of the US economy and the recovery of employment levels are important to the Region because of tourism, the ability of the US to buy Caribbean goods, and payments from Caribbean nationals in the US, many of whom are affected by unemployment.
Work on a border wall between Mexico and the US will also be suspended. This is a symbolic recognition that the world needs bridges, not walls. It’s a rejection of Trump’s unilateral gesture and bullying in foreign policy. On the practical side, as the wall has been paid for by US taxpayers (despite Trump’s claims, Mexico did not pay a percentage), funds can now be diverted to programs that will help stimulate the US economy. A stronger US economy is good for the countries of the region for which the US is the largest trading partner.
One other executive order is notable for the Caribbean. It strengthens the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals policy, which allows some individuals, illegally in the US having entered as children, to enjoy deferred action from deportation and become eligible for a license work. The Trump administration had tried to undo those protections. Caribbean nationals will benefit from Biden’s act.
President Biden has not fully elaborated on Latin American and Caribbean policy. During his many years as a Senator and Vice President, he gained a deep knowledge of the Region. He has a good understanding of his challenges and potential. Trump’s Latin American and Caribbean policy was mainly directed at Cuba, Venezuela, and Nicaragua as a sop to disagree with in Florida, whose support was needed for the US Presidential election. Caribbean countries were pawns in that game.
Biden’s policies will be broader, aimed at promoting democracy and human rights, but also economic development. He knows that without all these things, refugees will continue to congregate on US borders.
All Caribbean countries should demonstrate a willingness to work with Biden, including by seeking to influence its Latin American and Caribbean policy as it is formulated.
A new age is dawning, it calls for new approaches. The United States and the Caribbean may take the leading light for their future relations, a line from the gripping poem of the young African American, Amanda Gorman, at Biden’s inauguration: “If we unite mercy with strength, and might with redress, then love becomes our inheritance and alters the birth of our children properly. ”
(The author is Antigua and Barbuda Ambassador to the US and OAS. He is also a Senior Fellow at the Institute of Commonwealth Studies at the University of London and Massey College at the University of Toronto. The views expressed are his own .)
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