Ministerial Task Force on Food Production and Security Updates Heads of Government

Phillip Edwards

Discussions at the Forty-Fourth CARICOM Heads of Government Meeting also surrounded the ongoing humanitarian crisis in Haiti. CARICOM Heads today issued a statement signaling a renewed commitment by the community to support Haiti. Additionally, a number of amendments to the Revised Treaty of Chaguaramas were agreed upon. The CARICOM Ministerial Task Force on Food Production and Food Security also provided an update to heads of government. Furthermore, their priority activities for 2023 were endorsed. Prime Minister Edwards tells us more.

Phillip Edwards, Prime Minister and Minister of Finance, Bahamas

“The task force has been focusing and addressing its efforts on several thematic areas which are deemed to have restarted region agricultural growth, including the removal of non-tariff barrier to regional trade in agriculture produce, de-risking of the sector, digital agriculture, research and development and a review of the CET. We also received a project proposal, “Building Food Security through Innovation, Resilience, Sustainability, and Empowerment” from the President of Guyana and accepted his government’s pledge of two million towards financing and implementing this project. Heads of Government discussed the need for measures to improve the functioning of the global financial system, particularly in the context of the numerous crises adversely affecting the community and which put middle income countries at risk for reversal of economic gain. These include climate change, debt, food and water security, the digital divide, health pandemics and anti microbial resistance. We agree to work collectively for the complete restructuring of the global financing architecture that will allow countries in the region to respond to the current existential and emerging threats. We call this imitative the “Bridgetown Initiative”. That is the brain child of our colleague Prime Minister Mia Motley, the Prime Minister of Barbados.”

CARICOM Heads of Government also addressed the issues of crime and violence in member states. It was agreed that a symposium would be held in April 2023 in Trinidad and Tobago to consider violent crime as a public health concern.