Caribbean leaders, bewildered and concerned about some of the policies of the Trump administration, will have a chance to air their grievances and lobby for waivers when they meet with Secretary of State Marco Rubio in Washington early next month.
Rubio has invited them for consultations after his recent swing through the north and southern Caribbean, when he had heard a mouthful of pushback from heads of government about issues ranging from threats to revoke visas for officials who hire and manage Cuban medical professionals, to impending mass deportations, and to reciprocal tariffs, among other issues to rail about.
Since being sworn in, the former senator from Florida has made himself available to meet with Caribbean representatives. Last month, he had sessions in Jamaica with leaders from Barbados, Haiti, and Trinidad, in addition to the host, and later flew to Guyana and Suriname as he listened to lobbying from the southern Caribbean.
This time, he will meet with the independent nations in the smaller eastern Caribbean nations (OECS), a sub-grouping of the 15-nation Caribbean Community (Caricom). Leadership of the Bahamas is also slated to be at the meeting table.
Since being sworn in as Secretary of State in late January, Rubio has made himself available to meet with nations in the U.S. geographic axis, discussing a range of issues, including energy security and controversial allegations from Washington that the region is helping Cuba traffic medical professionals by directly paying the Cuban government instead of the doctors and nurses themselves, among others.
In announcing the planned meeting, Ronald Sanders, Antigua’s ambassador to the U.S., praised the level of access the region is getting from such a senior administration official so early.
“Such early, sustained engagement signals that the region’s counsel carries weight,” Sanders said. “In diplomacy, there is no substitute for dialogue, especially when new policies are being cast. These meetings, therefore, are vital.”
Leaders have stated that they are particularly concerned about how the new tariff structure will affect the 1983 Caribbean Basin Initiative (CBI) and the Caribbean Basin Economic Recovery Act (CBERA) scheme that President Ronald Reagan initiated to allow largely for duty-free exports from the region.
“The new tariffs announced on April 3 cast a shadow over those preferences,” said Sanders. “No one yet knows whether CBERA’s hard-won relief survives intact or has been diminished in the flood of duties.”
Trump administration officials have also focused on the Cuban medical professionals scheme, long in existence in the region; a situation that has clearly angered officials because Washington has threatened to ban travel to the U.S. in retaliation. Several leaders and top officials have since invited the U.S. to go ahead and take away their visas because the medical program is a lifeline to CARICOM and the U.S. has offered nothing in return.
There are thousands of Cuban professionals in the region, with Jamaica and Guyana being among the largest recipients, totaling in excess of 1,000 participants alone. “Caricom’s reliance on Cuban medical personnel is born not of ideology but of necessity,” Sanders said in his weekly syndicated column. “Our own doctors and nurses, trained at public expense, are routinely drawn away by richer countries, including the US. What remains is a healthcare vacuum that Cuban professionals have helped to fill.”
Trade between the U.S. and the region provides the U.S. with a near $6 billion trade surplus, but how the new tariff structure will affect the CBI/CBERA and trade is left to be seen, officials say.