Flags of Caribbean Community (CARICOM) member-states fluttered in Port of Spain (capital of Trinidad & Tobago) twice last week, during recent close visits by US Vice President Joe Biden and China's President Xi Jinping, ahead of the upcoming US-China Presidential Summit in California. [Photo: Earl Bousquet]

Caribbean nations are being challenged to revisit their relationships with China and the United States following two recent meetings Caribbean Community (CARICOM) leaders held with U.S. Vice President Joe Biden and China's President Xi Jinping. The two summit-level talks in Trinidad & Tobago on May 27 and June 2, respectively, were seen as important barometers for CARICOM relations with the U.S. and China, ahead of the highly-anticipated two-day West Coast summit in California on June 7 and 8 between President Xi and his U.S. counterpart Barack Obama.

The CARICOM leaders' three-hour meeting with Biden ended with a pledge that the U.S. was willing to support Caribbean economic growth and development. But, during what they described as "frank but cordial" talks with Biden (which host Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar also told reporters were sometimes "brutal"), CARICOM leaders took the rare opportunity to deliver a strong message to the American President, this time about their disappointment with the still dwindling level of American economic investment in, and political cooperation with, CARICOM.

CARICOM hasn't been at all happy with the pace and volume of its U.S. trade. Comparatively, in the past two decades, U.S.-Central America trade has grown, while U.S.-CARICOM trade has remained flat. CARICOM is concerned that Washington is not doing enough to improve trade imbalances. The figures reveal the bias: Total U.S. exports to CARICOM in 2012 were valued at $11.7 billion. However, in 2010, the U.S. had a market share of 43.7 percent of Trinidad and Tobago's total exports of $12.06 billion; similarly, Jamaica's exports for the same year were US$1.487 billion, of which the U.S. had a market share of 37 percent; and Guyana had total estimated exports of US$814 million, with the U.S. taking a market share of 28.6 percent, second only to Canada.

In response to Biden's promise of more U.S. help, CARICOM leaders insisted that "Washington should back its words with actions to stimulate Caribbean-US trade," calling for the U.S. to "to articulate clearly its policy towards the Caribbean," set a definite framework for any "partnership for sustainable economic growth," and conduct trade "on a level playing field and with respect for the rules of the World Trade Organization." They also registered their "concerns about graduation" and urged Washington "to use its influence in the international financial institutions and in the G-20 to encourage a review of the decreasing access to concessional financing being experienced by those CARICOM countries categorized as 'middle-income' countries." The Caribbean leaders also said they viewed the meeting with Biden "as an important precursor to a Summit with President Obama" – which they have sought, without success, since he was first elected in 2008.

The CARICOM government leaders carried much uncertainty as they concluded their talks with the U.S. Vice President. This uncertainly was in marked contrast to their feelings following their later engagement with the Chinese President, who addressed a luncheon meeting with the leaders of the nine CARICOM nations with which China has diplomatic relations (Trinidad and Tobago, Suriname, Guyana, Dominica, Barbados, Jamaica, the Bahamas, Grenada and Antigua and Barbuda). Xi told them that China will provide US$3 billion in concessional financing to its Caribbean allies. In addition, China will set up "demonstration centers" in the region to showcase agricultural technologies, send 100 medical staff to the Caribbean region, train 100 part-time postgraduate students and provide government scholarships for 1,000 students.

The Caribbean leaders were rather upbeat after their meeting with the Chinese leader, thanking him for his "long-term assistance" and welcoming "the new measures" he recommended, which, they said, would "boost the development" of Caribbean countries. For their part, they also pledged to boost cooperation with Beijing.

Caribbean ties with both the U.S. and China are at a crucial stage today. American political and economic interests in the mainly English-speaking CARICOM islands has been in decline since the U.S. invasion of Grenada in 1983, the September 11 terrorists attacks in New York in 2001 and the American-inspired 2008 global financial crisis. On the other hand, the last two decades have seen a significant improvement in, and extension of, China's relationship with CARICOM.

Beijing has strong ties today with the "Big Six" CARICOM member-states (The Bahamas, Barbados, Guyana, Jamaica, Surinam and Trinidad & Tobago) and lesser ties with the much smaller and economically weaker member-states of the Organization of Eastern Caribbean States (OECS), Antigua and Barbuda, Dominica and Grenada. Two CARICOM nations (Belize and Haiti) and three OECS member-states (St. Lucia, St. Kitts and Nevis and St. Vincent and the Grenadines) have ties with Taiwan and didn't participate in the talks with the Chinese President, leading to calls in some unexpected regional quarters for CARICOM to revisit and reconsider the wisdom of two different Caribbean approaches to the One China Policy.

In a June 2 editorial entitled Caribbean Must Fix China Policy, the traditionally conservative Gleaner newspaper in Jamaica complained that the CARICOM nations with Taiwan ties are "locked out of this economic and political engagement with Beijing." It noted that "Chinese firms have invested in or have won construction contracts for projects as far north as in the Bahamas, in Trinidad & Tobago to the south, as well as in Guyana on the northern shoulder of South America." The article also noted that in Jamaica, which President Xi first visited in 2009 as Vice President, "a Chinese firm is also spending US$600 million on highway expansion and considering investing a further US$1.5 billion on port and other infrastructure development; and Beijing has also promised to lend Kingston another US$700 million for the rehabilitation of roads and bridges."

The Gleaner editorial argued that the Two Chinas policy still being pursued by CARICOM member-states is counterproductive to a united CARICOM approach to relations with China and called for the Jamaica government, "given its lead role in CARICOM for foreign affairs," to urgently take steps towards "sorting out this China matter."

Jamaica's oldest and most-read newspaper stated that a united CARICOM policy on China was necessary, "because part of the legitimacy of CARICOM is the fact that its sum is potentially greater than its constituent parts."

The author is a columnist with China.org.cn. For more information please visit:

http://china.org.cn/opinion/earlbousquet.htm

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