“Our meetings in New Orleans were exceptionally rewarding and gratifying,” said Mr. Mayard-Paul. “We are solidifying valuable partnerships with outstanding agencies that will help advance our goals for building a stronger, more resilient Haiti under the umbrella of Katye Pam Poze, Haiti’s community-based decentralization program.”

According to Mayard-Paul, Ochsner, which has been a reliable partner to Haiti since the earthquake, is interested in establishing a relationship with Haiti’s Justinien hospital and the Ecole Polytechnic De Mayaya La Victoire, allowing Ochsner physicians and medical students to provide health services in and around Cap-Haitien. “Ochsner plans to implement a recurring medical mission to Haiti, supported by United States board-certified physicians,” he said. “They expect to launch their first mission this year.”

The MOI also plans to include Ochsner as a key health services partner within KPP, to help strengthen capacity building through training, and access to basic services through regional health centers and hospitals, in order to increase coverage throughout the country. “The Government of Haiti is seeking to enhance healthcare services available to Haitians by encouraging and supporting Ochsner and others to contribute to the health and well-being of the people of Haiti throughout the country,” added Mayard-Paul.

In signing the agreement with Tulane’s Payson Center, the Minister of the Interior emphasized that in its post-earthquake recovery process, the Republic of Haiti faces many challenges for which the Payson Center can provide meaningful solutions. “The Center is interested in providing its well-known expertise and experience in legal system reform, affordable housing and higher education, through a public-private partnership with the Government of Haiti,” said Mayard-Paul. The minister pointed out that Payson showed special interest in introducing online learning within the education module of Katye Pam Poze (KPP).
In addition, Tulane expressed an interest in also providing technical assistance/collaboration in waste water management, given its expertise in this particular area and the importance of this service to Haiti and KPP. “All of this is aligned with Haitian priorities,” highlighted Mayard-Paul, who reiterated that he was “greatly encouraged to find a long-term partner who shares the government’s vision of increasing access to basic social infrastructure and services through a ‘bottom-up’ approach so that, in the end, people would have no need to migrate out of their communities and into urban areas. This is the cornerstone of KPP and the government’s National Decentralization Agenda,” added Mayard-Paul.

During the delegation’s visit with the World Trade Center New Orleans, Mayard-Paul, met with Jessica Steverson, Marketing Director of the World Trade Center and they discussed the ways in which they could partner to “bring to life” the myriad of energy, agriculture and maritime investment opportunities available in Haiti. “Louisiana and the Gulf South region have many companies with the knowledge and capacity to develop these critical areas,” assured Mayard-Paul. During the discussion both parties agreed to work on building investment opportunities and establishing reciprocal trade missions between the two regions.
Of special significance to Mayard-Paul and the Haitian delegation was a meeting with the city of New Orleans including Mayor Mitchell J. Landrieu, who successfully led the efforts to rebuild the city and restore thousands of jobs following Hurricane Katrina.

“Mayor Landrieu’s rebuilding efforts set a viable model for Haiti to learn from,” remarked Mayard-Paul. “Looking at New Orleans’ regional economy, it is clear it has begun to diversify, spearheading growth in knowledge-based industries. As a result, entrepreneurship in New Orleans has spiked dramatically post-Katrina. With jobs a pressing need in Haiti, this is a valuable take-away from our visit.”

The City of New Orleans welcomed the idea of partnering with the Ministry of the Interior and the Government of Haiti by providing technical expertise and support in different fields that enable building back a better Haiti, as well as facilitating other investment opportunities identified by the minister.
Mayard-Paul was “humbled and grateful” for the warm reception provided by WCEF and its participants to Katye Pam Poze, Haiti’s innovative “bottom-up” approach to community integration and sustainable development, which is focused on improving delivery of government services, as well as fostering development and job creation by promoting strong community involvement. “KPP has been designed as a holistic community-based program, where the end prize is to improve the quality of life of the Haitian people by enabling safe and prosperous communities right where they live, so they don’t have to migrate to urban centers to look for jobs.”

News Americas, LONDON, England, Mon. May 7, 2012: A few days ago, the Caricom Secretary General, Irwin LaRoque, revealed in Washington that Cariforum nations had begun a process which if unresolved, will lead to a full complaint at the World Trade Organisation, (WTO), against the US Government in relation to rum.

Following representations by the West Indies Rum and Spirits Producers Association, (WIRSPA), the regional industry association, Caricom Governments last December formally expressed to the US their deep concern about measures being taken by the governments of the United States Virgin Islands (USVI) and Puerto Rico to provide multinational rum producers with subsidies under a programme that makes use of excise taxes on rum received from the US Federal Government.

Caricom subsequently raised the issue at a meeting of the US-Caricom Trade and Investment Council in March in Georgetown. Then last week the Caricom Secretary General took the opportunity, during meetings with US officials in Washington, to stress the seriousness of the issue and its implications if left unresolved.

As a consequence, a US Caricom technical meeting is expected to take place shortly. This is intended to lead to political exchanges with the United States Trade Representative, (USTR), aimed at resolving the issue. At the same time Cariforum Ambassadors in Washington have been meeting with others in the US administration and Congress to make clear the Caribbean’s concerns.

In a process that potentially sets David against Goliath, the Caribbean has initiated a dialogue with USTR that challenges an arrangement that enables the USVI to offer one of the world’s largest and wealthiest distilling groups, Diageo, huge subsidies. The concern is that if the matter goes unchallenged it will result in Caribbean producers seeing their presently significant share of the US market wiped out by subsidised product, and other large international distilling groups seeking to locate in the USVI and Puerto Rico to seek similar advantage.

As with most trade disputes, the matter is complicated.

The Caribbean’s case revolves around the fact that subsidies offered by the USVI to the multinational rum producers Diageo and Cruzan are inconsistent with WTO rules in as much as they involve prohibited export subsidies, make use of discriminatory taxation, and use such subsidies to cause adverse effects to the interests of other WTO members, in this case the countries of Cariforum.

Specifically the Caribbean’s case relates to the application by the US Government of a ‘cover-over’ programme which remits 98 per cent of all excise duties raised on rums sold in the US back to the US territories of Puerto Rico and the USVI. In 2010, this amounted to approximately US$450m.

In order to secure a greater amount of this ‘cover-over’ support, the USVI and Puerto Rico have since 2008 entered into new contractual arrangements with major multinational producers and offering extremely generous concessions, subsidies and long-term support, in exchange for them agreeing to site their distilleries and production facilities in their territories.

In the case of the USVI, its government signed a contract in 2008 with Diageo that promised the company very large subsidies over a thirty year period in return for the company’s commitment to produce locally all Captain Morgan rum sold in the United States. Other deals have been struck by Bacardi and Serralés with Puerto Rico.

Estimates suggest that that in these new contracts the value of the operating subsidies alone exceeds the actual production cost per litre of bulk rum. It is also believed that the combined new production capacity which is planned as part of the agreements will be equivalent to at least 80 per cent of current US rum consumption.

Unsurprisingly, rum producers in the Anglophone Caribbean, Haiti and the Dominican Republic have viewed this development with alarm. So too have Cariforum governments which have recognised the dangers for themselves and the region’s largest agriculture-based export industry which generates an estimated US$500m in foreign exchange and well over US$250m in tax revenues, which is to say nothing of the industry’s role as an important provider of employment or its close relationship to tourism.

While there is understanding of the economic problems facing the USVI, the reality is that the US Congress has allowed its USVI development program to divert hundreds of millions to primarily provide a development program for the largest distilled spirits companies in the world. In this way the US is damaging one of the few competitive industries that Cariforum nations have and which helps underpin the economic viability of small and sometimes vulnerable Caribbean states.

For this reason the dispute is at a Government to Government rather than an industry level.

There is also a sense that the manner in which the cover-over program is being used raises serious questions about US consistency in relation to its international obligations under WTO rules.

The US has for many years taken a leadership role in promoting strong WTO disciplines on trade distorting subsidies, so it is surprising that it has allowed a situation of competitive harm to arise. International distilling groups may have more political and economic muscle to flex in Washington, London and Brussels than do the countries of Cariforum, but the region has the facts and strict rules of world trade on its side.

This is therefore an instance where Caribbean Governments and the people of Cariforum need to stand tall, draw the line in Washington and, if necessary, in Geneva , and fight to win.

Rum has a special place in the hearts and minds of Caribbean people. It is a product that brings identity through small producers to the islands and countries of Cariforum from which it comes. Unlike the product of large multinational distilling groups the success of Cariforum producers does not result from artificial tax breaks, transfer pricing or subsidy. Instead it is an industry dominated by small local distillers whose product is export oriented, brings much needed foreign exchange, adds value to primary agriculture and provides significant levels of tax and revenue to Governments struggling to deliver social programmes.

That is why rum has always been a product worth fighting for, as Europe knows to its cost and the US is about to discover.

David Jessop is the Director of the Caribbean Council and can be contacted at david.jessop@caribbean-council.org.Previous columns can be found at www.caribbean-council.org