SPECIAL ADDRESS
BY
HON MR LESTER B BIRD MP
PRIME MINISTER OF ANTIGUA AND BARBUDA
TO
THE 21ST ANNIVERSARY MEETING
OF THE SIGNING OF THE TREATY OF BASSETERRE
BRINGING THE OECS INTO BEING
ON 18TH JUNE 2002
IN BASSETERRE, ST KITTS

Mr Chairman, Your Excellency the Governor-General of St Kitts-Nevis, Colleague Heads of Government, Ministers, Your Lordship The Chief Justice, Distinguished Members of the Diplomatic Corps, Ladies and Gentlemen.

We have taken 21 years to return to where we began.
When we started we were anxious but ever fearless.
However cautious we were of success,
we never once doubted our quest:
the importance and permanence of the OECS.

When future generations of the Caribbean look back across the passage of our regional development, I have no doubt that they will recognise the beginning of the OECS project as a truly significant and defining moment in our history.

It is true that 21 years ago today on June 18th, 1981, representatives of seven of our countries signed the Treaty of Basseterre bringing into being this Organisation that has, over the years, served the interests of our sub-region so well.

I was privileged to be one of the original signatories with Mary Eugenia Charles of Dominica, Maurice Bishop of Grenada, Franklin Margetson of Montserrat, Winston Cenac of St Lucia, Hudson Tannis of St Vincent and The Grenadines and Kennedy Simmons of St Kitts-Nevis. But, many others played a full part. Sir John Compton of St Lucia was a significant player, as was the late Paul Southwell, the former Premier of St Kitts-Nevis and the late Lee Moore, first as Attorney-General and then also as Premier. From London, Sir Shridath Ramphal, the Commonwealth Secretary-General, facilitated the studies and legal work necessary to being the Treaty to reality.

But that journey to Basseterre 21 years ago had an earlier beginning.

I recall the decisive meeting in St Lucia in May 1979 of the then West Indies (Associated States) Council of Ministers under the Chairmanship of Paul Southwell at which we made the momentous decision to establish the Organisation. Tragically, Paul Southwell died literally at the end of that meeting, but not before he had put the seal on our historic pact.

In the words of our final communique, "new ground was broken in the advancement of regional integration".

I had put a Resolution to adopt the Treaty in principle to that May 1979 meeting. It was a resolution that the Council of Ministers adopted with unanimity.

This was, at the time, a bright moment in an otherwise gloomy hour in the struggle for regional integration and development.

Our region was beset with difficulties.

Caribbean Community Heads of Government had not held a meeting since 1974 as the leaders of the larger countries bickered. Sour relations between Guyana's Forbes Burnham and Jamaica's Michael Manley on the one hand, and Trinidad and Tobago's Eric Williams on the other hand, had deprived the region of the direction of its highest decision-making body. They simply would not meet.

No Conference of CARICOM Heads was held until 1982, the year after we established the Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States.

There is no doubt in my mind that the creation of the OECS, and the obvious determination by the leadership of our sub-region to forge ahead with regional integration, played more than a little part in ending the eight-year impasse of no Conference of CARICOM Heads of Government.

In serving our own interests, therefore, the OECS also served the interests of the wider Caribbean Community.

But to return to the milieu of 1979, there were three other phenomena that darkened the region's prospects.

First, in that same year, our region experienced its first - and thankfully its only - change of government by a coup d'etat when the New Jewel Movement seized power in Grenada.

We could not proceed with Grenada as a member of the prospective Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States while its government maintained power at the point of a gun. The principles of democracy, of constitutionality, and of self-determination were greatly valued in our territories. We were no more willing to sacrifice them then than we would be today.

The revolutionary government of Grenada could not enjoy a seat at our decision-making table once it remained in office unconstitutionally.

The May 1979 meeting mandated me to talk directly with Maurice Bishop to secure the assurance that general elections would be held and Grenada returned to constitutional government. He gave me that assurance and the way was opened for him to join us here is Basseterre the following year as one of the original signatories to the Treaty.

Little did we know then that the revolution would turn inward on itself, opening the way to the presence of foreign troops on the soil of an independent Commonwealth Caribbean country. It was a salutary lesson. Who knows if Maurice Bishop's fate might have been different, had we insisted on a return to constitutionality before affording Grenada membership of the OECS?

The other issue that beset the region, creating disunity in its stance on international issues and on domestic economic arrangements, was "ideological pluralism" - the notion that economic integration and foreign policy co-ordination were possible among countries whose governing ideologies varied substantially.

Commonwealth Caribbean countries were caught on a drifting tide as we wrestled with ways of overcoming the waves of difference that set Guyana, Jamaica and Grenada on an avowed socialist course and the rest of us on another.

The third issue that bedevilled the Caribbean was the fact that the countries of our sub-region were heading to separate independence from Britain placing at risk the valuable, common institutions that we shared within the West Indies (Associated States) Council of Ministers and the Eastern Caribbean Common Market.

I was among those greatly troubled about the prospects for our small and vulnerable countries if they proceeded down the road to independence without maintaining and strengthening the machinery for co-operation and economic integration provided by the Eastern Caribbean Common Market and the West Indies (Associated Sates) Council of Ministers.

Therefore, in October 1978, a few months before that decisive May 1979 meeting, and on the eve of the independence of Dominica in November, and the impending independence of St Lucia and St Vincent and The Grenadines a few months later, I dared to voice my deep concern.

In doing so, I quoted a passage in the Preface to a novel entitled, The Thorn Birds. The passage read as follows:

"There is a legend about a bird which sings just once in its life, more sweetly than any other creature on the face of the earth.

From the moment it leaves the nest it searches for a thorn-tree, and does not rest until it has found one. Then, singing among the savage branches, it impales itself upon the longest, sharpest spine. And dying, it rises above its own agony to out sing the lark and the nightingale.

One superlative song, its own death the price.

But the whole world silences to listen and God in His Heaven smiles. For the best is only bought at great pain..."

I made the point to the meeting that, by ending its colonial relationship with Britain separately, each of our countries, like the Thorn Bird, may enjoy the sweet moment of that one superlative song, but its price may be catastrophe.

I urged that instead of abandoning the institutions of cooperation provided by the ECCM and WISA, we should strengthen them to serve us after independence.

Niggling at my mind, at that time, was whether in the quest for separate independence, we were not condemning ourselves to international irrelevance and so to the margins of global economic and political arrangements. My hope was to convince the leaders of Dominica, St Lucia and St Vincent and The Grenadines, even as they stood on the threshold of independence, to commit themselves to interdependence within our sub-region.

To their eternal credit and to the benefit of our small group of countries, they agreed. Independence from Britain would be pursued, but so too would the enhancement of the interdependent relationship that our countries had historically enjoyed.

We had taken our first tentative step on the journey that led to this City of Basseterre on June 18th, 1981, and that has brought us back here 21 years later.

We had done so on the basis of the bonds that make the people of our sub-region a unique part of the Caribbean family: the bonds of shared values, shared history, and shared aspirations, and, above all, shared challenges deriving from our small size.

In the words of Maya Angelou:

"The hells we have lived through and live through still
have sharpened our senses and toughened our will.
I look through your anguish
right down to your soul.
I know that with each other we can make ourselves whole.
I look through the posture and past your disguise,
and see your love for family in your big brown eyes."

I was honoured to serve as the First Chairman of the OECS. It was a stewardship that lasted for two years until May 1983.

At the Second Meeting of the Authority in St Lucia in November 1982, I placed eight objectives for the Organisation before the Heads of Government.

With your indulgence, I would like to recall what those objectives were. I mention them as a measure of what we have achieved in 21 years and what we are still to realise.

I began by saying:

"Each of our states now supports customs administrations which are costly in relation to the size of our populations and the volume of transactions that they handle. In addition, customs inspection is increasingly becoming a skilled exercise if it is to be conducted properly. As an example, some officers may require advanced training in chemistry if they are to detect drugs being imported illegally.

It would be a considerable natural advance on the Common Market we operate, and a considerable increase in revenue both through savings on costs and efficient collection, if we established a common customs administration and a customs union among ourselves".

Apart from proposing a Customs Union, I suggested seven other goals for the benefit of the people of the OECS. These were:

(1) The upgrading of the East Caribbean Currency Authority to a Central Bank;
(2) The establishment of a joint approach to a regime on the Law of the Sea, including agreement on our territorial boundaries and the boundaries of our exclusive economic zone;
(3) An intensification of the allocation of industry scheme and the introduction of binding mechanisms to ensure protection for industries allocated under the scheme;
(4) An integration of similar productive activity in member states and joint production to maximise the use of our resources;
(5) Improvement in export marketing and tourism promotion in order to increase foreign exchange earnings;
(6) Definition of a clear role for the private sector in economic development and, in that context, the establishment of clear guidelines for foreign investment in our economies;
(7) A commitment to adopt common policies and take joint action in the international community, particularly in regard to trade and economic matters.

As we look back at those eight goals over the last 21 years, the creation of the Eastern Caribbean Central Bank to replace the East Caribbean Currency Authority stands out as a major achievement.

It is indisputable that the Bank has well served the interests of our peoples. It stands as a symbol of success to regional economic integration groups around the world including the European Union. It may well prove to be the foundation on which a common CARICOM currency is eventually constructed.

But, we have failed to address effectively many of the others.

This is not to say that the Organisation has not been successful; unquestionably it has. We have much to celebrate. But, realistically, we could have been in a much stronger position today to withstand the challenges that confront our small economies had we implemented these measures in the 1980s when each of our countries enjoyed a period of unprecedented economic growth.

In the context of success, let me observe that our traditional areas of functional cooperation have been remarkably beneficial. I speak here of our common Judiciary, and our common civil aviation authority. To these, I add the relatively more recent Regional Security System (the RSS). Had these institutions not existed, we would now have to create them for none of our countries could afford the costs individually nor could we provide the required human resources.

I recognise that it is as much frustration with our capacity to respond effectively to the demands and challenges of the international economic environment, as a firm belief in a political union of our Eastern Caribbean States, that motivated the former Prime Minister of St Vincent and The Grenadines, Sir James Mitchell, to work tirelessly for a such a union stretching back to May, 1970 when he wrote his "Formula for East Caribbean Unification".

In both this frustration and his commitment to political union, he has a worthy successor in the present Prime Minister, my friend Ralph Gonsalves, whatever their domestic political differences may have been.

I applaud Ralph Gonsalves' zeal now, just as I always appreciated the enthusiasm of Sir James. Notwithstanding the failed attempt in 1988 to promote a political union in the OECS, the desirable goal of some form of political union should always be firmly fixed on the agenda of our countries so that one day we may overcome the tendency toward disunity by "constant effort and unrelenting perseverance and discipline" to use the words of Sir Shridath Ramphal.
But, we should not delude ourselves that the day is near or that we have overcome the tendency toward disunity even among our own peoples in the OECS. Along with the constitutional and political dimensions that led to the failure of the initiative for an OECS political union in 1988 was a continuing resistance to the notion of unrestricted movement of labour among our own people.

I am strongly of the view that it is the success of strong common services and deeper economic integration that will encourage our people to embrace a political union. They must be emboldened by the benefits of integration in order to cast away their fears of union.

Therefore, on this 21st Anniversary of the birth of the OECS, we should further consolidate the Organisation by advancing the economic integration of our countries with renewed and purposeful vigour and commitment.

There is every reason why we should do so now.

The international economic environment and its impact upon our domestic economies demand an effective response.

No longer do we enjoy the preferential access to markets for our primary commodities; concessional development financing and generous inflows of aid and technical assistance are things of the past; globalization threatens even local production within our own markets.

What is more we are required to participate simultaneously in three sets of negotiations that are vital to our survival: the negotiations between the African Caribbean and Pacific States on new economic partnership arrangements with Europe, the negotiations in the Free Trade of the Americas Agreement, and negotiations in the World Trade Organisation on a global regime covering trade in both goods and services.

To survive the onslaught of globalization, OECS countries have to accelerate their transition from a world of preferential markets for key products and concessionary aid flows to a world that is competitive and market oriented.

This means that within our own economies the emphasis must be on creating competitive and market oriented businesses.

How do we do this? We must start by not only diagnosing our problems, but by identifying and implementing solutions.

The time for talk is past, the need to act is urgent.

In part, we have to merge similar industries in our countries. They must become single, larger entities with increased production of high quality goods and services and they should aim at markets that are global and not limited to our small economic space.

Essentially, this is a private sector activity but governments must facilitate and encourage it by providing the environment conducive to mergers of enterprises within the OECS and to their larger investment.

Thus, I repeat my call of 1982. Let us establish within the OECS a Customs Union. Let us have a common customs administration. Let us make the movement of goods and services among our countries no different from moving goods from Hewannora to Castries in St Lucia, or from Georgetown to Kingstown in St Vincent, or from English Harbour to St John's in Antigua. Let us, in collaboration with the private sector, establish the machinery for the joint external marketing of goods and services.

Let us also establish a system of tax harmonisation and of double taxation agreements so that investments can move more freely between our countries with no penalty to the private sector. Let us also establish common investment regimes and incentive schemes, but agree on defined derogations for some member states for certain industries so that the playing field could be level for all.

Already we have a common Supreme Court. Let us now also establish a common judicial system including a common magistracy.

I was pleased to see that the CARICOM Task Force on Crime and Security has endorsed a proposal I made two years ago for a Caribbean Drug Control and Crime Prevention Commission. I hope that it will come to fruition for the problems of drug trafficking and crime prevention now pose grave challenges to each of our countries regardless of size or resources.

When I made that call, I also suggested that within the OECS we should consider the establishment of a common police service and a common prisons authority with a single high security prison. I commend this notion to this meeting once again. The problems associated with policing and prisons in the context of public safety should no longer be longer be deferred for urgent attention.

Mr Chairman, on this 21st Anniversary of the OECS, our circumstances are worse than they were in 1981. Then, we were experiencing unprecedented economic growth, aid flows were considerable, and market access was guaranteed. None of this is so today.

Yet, we must find the resources to address issues of vital importance to our survival; issues of a highly technical nature such as trade in services, intellectual property, deregulated air transportation, and cross border tax.

CARICOM and the Regional Negotiating Machinery are more in the forefront of these deliberations than we are. Yet the specific characteristics and interests of our sub-region necessitate that we should have a negotiating entity that represents our views within CARICOM and the RNM.

We must do something about this now. I propose that we do something by adopting a proposal arising from the Report of the West Indian Commission, Time for Action. They had proposed the establishment of a CARICOM Commission whose principal role would be to further the process of integration among the members of CARICOM.

It was an idea I had always supported and whose rejection by my colleague Heads of Government I had always lamented. For, I was convinced that such a Commission would have accelerated the implementation of decisions of Heads and created initiatives for enhancing the region.

I now make bold to suggest to this 21st Anniversary Meeting of the OECS that we should implement this recommendation among ourselves.

We should establish a three-man Commission, with the Director-General as one of them, to oversee the implementation of the decisions of the Authority, and to superintend the deepening of the process of economic integration and functional cooperation with the guidance of the Authority. Among the ideas that might form part of their work is a refinement by Heads of Government of some of the proposals I have made in this address.

If we can make this Commission work, not only would it serve our needs, it might encourage CARICOM to adopt it, in which case it would not be the first time that action by the OECS has influenced CARICOM for the better.

Mr Chairman, we have it within ourselves to meet the challenges that confront us. The celebration of the 21st Anniversary of the OECS is living proof of our ability to triumph over the odds. The OECS is a commingling of small states. It enables us - it requires us - to be capable of big ideas; creative ideas that are essential to our survival.

Ladies and Gentlemen, despite the difficult international environment, as a Caribbean leader and a Caribbean man, I do not despair of our prospects. Ours strength lies in the hardiness of our people, in their intellectual prowess and in their determination to overcome. That is the font from which the Caribbean draws its fortitude. It has motivated us for centuries. It will carry us over many more.

I end by recalling words of Maya Angelou again:

"Out of the huts of history's shame, I rise.
Up from a past that's rooted in pain, I rise.
I'm a black ocean, leaping and wide,
welling and swelling I bear in the tide.

Leaving behind the nights of terror and fear, I rise.
Into a daybreak that's wondrously clear, I rise.
Bringing the gifts that my ancestors gave,
I am the dream and hope of the slave.
I rise
I rise
I rise."

Thank you very much.