Golding: Count us out

Manning was in Jamaica pursuing political union

Jamaica Prime Minister Bruce Golding has told Prime Minister Patrick Manning that his country will not participate in the political union now being pursued by the governments of Trinidad and Tobago and three other Caribbean Community (Caricom) countries by 2013.

Golding did so when he met Manning at the Office of the Prime Minister, Jamaica House, Jamaica, on Monday evening.

Foreign Affairs Minister Paula Gopee-Scoon, who was part of the delegation that travelled with Manning to Jamaica, confirmed yesterday that Golding expressed his administration's position that the implications of the proposed union on Caricom had to be carefully examined.

"Jamaica was concerned about how it would work and how it would affect the OECS (Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States) and how it would affect Caricom," Gopee-Scoon said in a brief interview last evening.

A statement from the Office of the Prime Minister in Jamaica stated yesterday that Golding said he looked forward to the study on the modalities for the proposed union now being undertaken.

Manning's office said that he and Gopee-Scoon had scheduled a news conference for Wednesday to discuss his visit to Jamaica, which was part of a two-day trip to that country, Belize, the Bahamas and Suriname that ended yesterday.

Manning, who turned 62 on August 17, just three days after he signed a Memorandum of Understanding on the political/economic union proposal, undertook the two-day trip to meet with the heads of government of the five Caricom countries not represented when the document was signed.

The Jamaica Prime Minister's Office on Tuesday said that Golding, in his meeting with Manning, reiterated his administration's position that the political union proposal needs to be discussed at the level of the Caricom Heads of Government conference.

Last week, Manning told reporters during the post-Cabinet news conference he had "no doubt that a special meeting of Heads will be called in due course."

Manning then said, "But as an initiative which I led myself, I have a responsibility to sensitise my colleagues."

(Caribbean Net News)