Photo: Via france24.com

10th December 2022

Protests are into their third week in the French overseas territories of Guadeloupe and Martinique. 

Demonstrators had initially taken to the streets to protest impending mandatory vaccination rules for health workers and other COVID-19 restrictions, but the unrest has evolved into action against a broader set of socioeconomic issues. 

Over the last two weeks, residents have erected barricades and blocked roads as frustration mounted over the application of an order already active in mainland France requiring health workers to be vaccinated against COVID-19. 

According to French Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin, there have been at least 10 arrests made across the two territories after several journalists and members of the security forces were targeted. 

Reports emerged that shots were fired at police in Martinique, where a coalition of 17 trade union organisations launched a general strike in protest of the COVID-19 curbs. AFP reported that men on a motorbike shot at four journalists from the news agency, but no one was injured. 

In Guadeloupe, the protest saw an escalation of violence as protesters set fire to at least six buildings in the largest city Pointe-à-Pitre with four being completely destroyed, according to the fire service. 

France has reportedly already dispatched 200 police officers to the island, and Minister for France’s overseas territories, Sébastien Lecornu said 70 additional officers, as well as 10 more members of a special SWAT-like unit, would be deployed to better respond to the situation. 

With no end to the unrest in sight, France has moved to postpone the mandatory vaccination requirement until 31 December to allow for negotiations. 

“If the law of the Republic is to apply to all French departments, and therefore to Guadeloupe and Martinique, the details of its application must be adapted to the health and social situation of these two territories,” the health ministry said in a statement announcing the postponement. 

Despite this the unrest has continued. Some analysts have blamed the historic mistrust of the French Government’s handling of health crises which has remained since many people in Guadeloupe and Martinique were exposed to a toxic pesticide, known as chlordecone, used in banana plantations in the 1970s. Others say the protests shifted to local anger over broader issues with the French Government. 

Last week, Sebastien Lecornu met with four union representatives in Guadeloupe, who handed him a list of their demands. In addition to ending the vaccination mandate, demonstrators have been calling for salary increases and lower gas prices. 

The meeting hit a flashpoint when French officials took exception to union leaders’ refusal to denounce recent violence, including attacks on police and other security officers. “The condition for dialogue is for all political and trade unions to condemn the violence, and more specifically, attempts to murder” said a statement from the Ministry. 

Another important, but highly contentious issue is greater autonomy for the two territories. In a YouTube video released after the protests began, Minister Lecornu said that certain elected officials in Guadeloupe had raised the question of autonomy and changing its status as an overseas region. 

“The Government is ready to talk about this. There are no bad debates, as long as those debates serve to resolve the real everyday problems of people in Guadeloupe,” Lecornu said of the pursuit of great autonomy. 

He added that this was one of a series of initiatives the Government in Paris would be taking in Guadeloupe, including improving healthcare, infrastructure projects, and a scheme to create jobs for young people. 

However, Lecornu has since walked back his statements on autonomy. In a 2 December interview, he attempted to clarify his earlier position, saying that “autonomy” of Guadeloupe mentioned in the midst of a social crisis, would consist of “a decentralisation pushed to the extreme”. 

As unrest continues – albeit on a reduced scale – many have branded the Overseas Territories Minister’s visit as a failure. Negotiations have thus far not yielded concrete solutions as many elected officials and labour unions declined the invitation to meet. 

“This is not a failure, we are on the way to a return to order,” Lecornu said as he ended his 24-hour visit to Guadeloupe. Speaking on the absence of elected officials, the Minister said that while some had “let him down, the state is there to move forward”. 

As the stand-off continues between local elected officials, trade unions and the French Government, nightly curfews remain in some parts of the territories and roadblocks continue to pop up sporadically on key highways disrupting regular economic activity and livelihoods. 

This is a lead article from Caribbean Insight, The Caribbean Council’s flagship fortnightly publication. From The Bahamas to French Guiana, each edition consists of country-by-country analysis of the leading news stories of consequence, distilling business and political developments across the Caribbean into a single must-read publication. Please follow the links on the right-hand side of this page to subscribe, or access a free trial.

Photo by Alonso Reyes

26th November 2021

As the global economic recovery accelerates, Caribbean nations are positioning themselves to benefit from the return of cruise tourism to their shores.

In recent weeks, several countries have welcomed the return of cruise ships to their ports after the industry all but collapsed under the weight of the COVID-19 pandemic. Though some countries reopened for cruise tourism before others, the initial trickle of ships is growing into a stream.

On 11 November 2021, Port Kingstown in St Vincent and the Grenadines received its first cruise call since the MV Seaborne Odyssey docked in Grenadine waters during August. The MV Britannia is the first to visit the mainland since the pandemic halted cruise flows and is one of more than 224 calls scheduled in the coming months. Of these, some 14 ships are expected to make inaugural calls.

Similarly, the Port Authority of Jamaica (PAJ) has disclosed that the country is to welcome 50 cruise ships at the five ports in the island in the months of November and December 2021.

PAJ CEO, Gordon Shirley, said the ships would visit ports in Ocho Rios in St Ann, Montego Bay in St James, Port Antonio in Portland, Falmouth in Trelawny, and Port Royal, Kingston, in the coming weeks. 

He also noted that the expanded berthing at the port in Montego Bay will facilitate larger cruise ships, with Jamaica targeting to receive four of the biggest cruise ships (Oasis of the Seas, Allure of the Seas, Harmony of the Seas, and Symphony of the Seas) ever to be built in 2022. 

“Cruise shipping is critical to the recovery of the tourism sector, and we are seeing a welcomed return of vessels with the recognition that Jamaica’s Resilient Corridors offer a safe environment for our visitors, tourism workers, and the general population,” said Tourism Minister Edmund Bartlett, as he hailed the growing demand for destination Jamaica and the success of efforts to reopen the tourism sector. 

In the past, the island has pulled in revenue of US$10mn over the winter season from cruise lines and their visitors. The Ministry of Tourism is currently projecting 200,000 cruise passengers, representing 110 calls between October 2021 and April 2022.

Meanwhile, St Kitts and Nevis has witnessed the simultaneous berthing of three cruise vessels at the expanded Port Zante for the first time since the onset of the pandemic. The 16 November calls of the Celebrity Equinox, Explorer of the Seas, and the AIDAperla to the port has been described by the Tourism Authority as “a major milestone for cruise recovery in St Kitts.”

In what was its inaugural call to the country, the AIDperla brought with it 1,666 visitors, while the three vessels brought approximately 4,500 persons to the shores of St Kitts. Tourism Minister Lindsay Grant called on stakeholders to understand the important work being done as the destination continues to work with its cruise line partners to offer a safe experience.

Just 263km away, Dominica has welcomed three cruise ships making inaugural calls to at the Woodbridge Bay Portsince the resumption of calls to the island in July 2021. 

The MV Enchanted Princess of Princess Cruises arrived on 14 November on what was the ship’s first of 10 scheduled calls to the island for the 2021/2022 cruise season. On 16 November, the MV Rotterdam of Holland American Line also made its inaugural call; bringing 1868 passengers to the island’s shore.

Dominica has received a total of 19 cruise calls as of 15 November 2021, bringing an estimated 10,818 cruise passengers to the island’s shores. Statistics up to 14 November show that some 4570 passengers have engaged in tours to the island’s tourism sites. 

Officials have announced that they are scheduled to welcome approximately 251 cruise calls during the 2021/2022 Cruise Season carrying a total of 355,973 cruise passengers. Of these, 12 ships will be making their inaugural calls to the island.

In Puerto Rico, the Royal Caribbean cruise line has announced that it will resume its regular schedule of stops at the Pan American Pier in Old San Juan. The Puerto Rico Tourism Company (PRTC) also revealed that the capital city’s main piers will also welcome Crystal Endeavor and Celebrity Apex cruises for their inaugural visits to the island.

“The visits, which these three vessels will be making between the months of November 2021 to April 2022, will have an economic impact initially estimated at around US$16mn,” said PRTC Executive Director Carlos Mercado Santiago in a statement.

Although doubts about the sustainability of cruise tourism persists amidst assertions of low passenger spend vis-à-vis stayover visitors and environmental degradation, the industry remains a mainstay of Caribbean countries desperate to get their economies going again.

This is a lead article from Caribbean Insight, The Caribbean Council’s flagship fortnightly publication. From The Bahamas to French Guiana, each edition consists of country-by-country analysis of the leading news stories of consequence, distilling business and political developments across the Caribbean into a single must-read publication. Please follow the links on the right-hand side of this page to subscribe, or access a free trial.

Photo by Markus Spiske / https://www.ecolife.zone/

Caribbean Heads of Government and regional technocrats have made forceful representations at the UN Climate Change Conference (COP26) being held in Scotland. 

Barbados Prime Minister Mia Mottley, who was among a limited cadre of world leaders to address the opening plenary in Glasgow, delivered a stinging rebuke of inaction by large nations. 

“Do some leaders in this world believe that they can survive and thrive on their own? Have they not learned from the pandemic? Can there be peace and prosperity in one-third of the world that literally prospers, and the other two-thirds of the world live under siege and face calamitous threats to their well-being?” Mottley asked while referring to continued inaction as a “death sentence” for small states. 

Seemingly referring to China and Russia, Prime Minister Mottley called out those countries which are some of the biggest emitters of carbon globally, that opted not to attend COP26. She urged those present to “encircle” countries unwilling to act on emissions. 

Noting that the central banks of the wealthiest countries had spent US$25tn on quantitative easing over the last 13 years, Mottley called on large countries to step up in the financing of climate change mitigation. “Had we used that US$25tn to purchase bonds to finance the energy transition, or the transition of how we eat, or how we move in transport, we would now today be reaching that 1.5 degree limit that is so vital to us,” she argued. 

Trinbagonian Prime Minister Keith Rowley said that loss and damage are already clear in the aggressive erosion of coastlines and the bleaching of coral reefs. He stressed that “tackling loss and damage must remain a critical and core issue of any global climate action framework”. 

“We are increasingly concerned about our ability to address this issue given the well-known difficulty in accessing financing for such projects. We need funds like the Green Climate Fund to establish specific streams for loss and damage finance to ensure that this is prioritized in the same way as mitigation and adaptation,” Rowley admonished. 

Prime Minister of Antigua and Barbuda and Chair of Alliance of Small Island States (AOSIS), Gaston Browne has labelled COP26 as a public relations exercise, even as he acknowledged some benefits to the summit. 

“We also wanted to see increased scale of funding so that more monies would be made available to small island states and other developing countries to adapt and mitigate against the effects of climate change and even to have some form of mechanism for compensation for loss and damage. Those are among the objectives we had established going into the COP26, but unfortunately if you look beyond the incremental gains COP26 was merely a PR exercise, a great PR platform,” Browne said. 

While in Scotland, Prime Minister Browne also signed an agreement with the Prime Minister of Tuvalu which paves the way for ground-breaking climate change litigation before international courts. According to agreement, its signing offers “a novel legal path to address the severe damage to Small Island States caused by climate change”. It establishes a Commission of Small Island States on Climate Change and International Law which is authorised to seek advisory opinions from the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea on the legal responsibility of States for carbon emissions, marine pollution, and rising sea levels. 

“Small Island States’ emission of greenhouse gases is negligible, but they bear the overwhelming burden of its catastrophic effects, including persistent destruction, repeated costs of rebuilding and huge debts to finance resilience. This injustice must end. We insist that those States most responsible for this dire situation respect their legal obligations to stop global warming and to provide compensation to its victims,” Browne said. 

Bahamas Prime Minister Philip Davis urged world leaders to show courage in the fight against climate change, warning that the world is running out of time to prevent disaster. “We in The Bahamas will do what we can, but the limits of what our nation’s effort can accomplish are stark: we cannot out-run your carbon emissions, we cannot out-run the hurricanes which are growing more powerful, and we cannot out-run rising sea levels, as our islands disappear beneath the seas,” Davis said. 

Meanwhile, the Caribbean Development Bank (CDB) took the opportunity to propose a resilience-adjusted Gross National Income (GNI) measure for Small Island Developing States (SIDS) to access concessional finance. 

Speaking at COP26, CDB President Gene Leon said that the Recovery Duration Adjuster (RDA) is based on two key principles. Firstly, the incorporation of underlying structural weaknesses, high debt levels, and insufficient investment in resilient infrastructure as important inputs in determining the extent of a country’s vulnerability to exogenous shocks. And secondly, the duration of recovery from a shock which would provide a stronger justification for accessing concessional finance. 

Leon argued that conventional measures that utilise GNI per capita, do not capture this resilience drag (the longer duration of recovery experienced by SIDS) and can provide misleading signals about the health and stability of an economy which has implications for the overall cost of recovery and achievement of development goals and targets. 

“The RDA is therefore the means through which we can create a resilience-adjusted per capita income measure that will be a more comprehensive and equitable tool for classifying SIDS and mobilising much-needed financial resources” the CDB President stated. 

Away from the plenary sessions at COP26, Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States (OECS) Director General Didacus Jules, signed the Glasgow Declaration on Climate Action in Tourism. The Declaration calls for the acceleration of climate action in tourism by securing commitments to reduce emissions in the sector by at least 50% over the next ten years, and net zero emissions before 2050. 

“The OECS is one of the most dependent tourism regions in the world and the tourism sector is highly vulnerable to climate change. I am excited about this partnership and how it can help our tourism sector get aligned to the climate change agenda,” Jules said at the signing. 

This is a lead article from Caribbean Insight, The Caribbean Council’s flagship fortnightly publication. From The Bahamas to French Guiana, each edition consists of country-by-country analysis of the leading news stories of consequence, distilling business and political developments across the Caribbean into a single must-read publication. Please follow the links on the right-hand side of this page to subscribe, or access a free trial.

Photo by Markus Spiske

Authorities are racing against time to secure the release of 17 missionaries who have been kidnapped by a gang in Haiti.

According to reports, members of the Ohio-based Christian Aid Ministries were on a trip to visit an orphanage in Ganthier, a commune east of the capital Port-au-Prince, when they were taken.

Christian Aid said that the group consisted of 16 US citizens and one Canadian, and includes a total of five children, seven women, and five men.

This year has seen a significant increase in the incidence of kidnappings in Haiti. It marks another in what has been more than 600 kidnappings recorded between January and October this year, compared to 231 for the same period of 2020, according to a local civil society group.

Officials have identified the group responsible as the 400

Mawozo gang, which was also blamed for kidnapping five priests and two nuns earlier this year. The gang controls the area where the missionaries were abducted in the suburbs of Port-au-Prince. The BBC reports that they have been involved in armed combat with rival

gangs, and kidnapping businessmen and police officers over the last several months.

In the days after the kidnapping, the emergence of a ransom demand has created a heightened sense of urgency. The purported leader of the 400 Mawozo gang, Wilson Joseph, has issued a ransom demand of US$1mn per person, and has threatened to execute the hostages if the US$17mn ransom is not paid.

“I swear by thunder that if I don’t get what I’m asking for, I will put a bullet in the heads of these Americans,” he declared in a video message being circulated on the internet.

Justice Minister Liszt Quitel said that the demand might signal the start of a long negotiation. “Often these gangs know these demands cannot be met,” he said, “and they will consider a counter-offer from the families. And the negotiations can take a couple of days sometimes, or a couple of weeks”. Quitel said that the gang had yet to issue a deadline for payment.

The Washington Post reported that one of those abducted posted a WhatsApp message calling for help. “Please pray for us!! We are being held hostage, they kidnapped our driver. Pray pray pray. We don’t know where they are taking us,” the message said.

The White House has confirmed that FBI agents and US Department of State officials are helping Haitian authorities with the investigation. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said that the kidnappings were “also indicative of a larger problem, and that is a security situation that is, quite simply, unsustainable.”

In an interview with CNN, Illinois Republican Congressman, Adam Kinzinger, said that he believes the US should negotiate with the kidnappers, but not pay ransom. “We need to track down where they are and see if negotiations – without paying ransom – are possible…Or do whatever we need to do, on a military front or police front”, he said.

In Michigan, hundreds turned up for a vigil praying for the safe release of a local family who are among those kidnapped. According to their pastor, Ron Marks, the four family members arrived in Haiti earlier this month to render humanitarian assistance.

A spokesperson for Christian Aid Ministries said the families of those kidnapped are from Amish, Mennonite, and other conservative Anabaptist communities in Ohio, Michigan, Wisconsin, Tennessee, Pennsylvania, Oregon, and Ontario, Canada.

Meanwhile, unrest has broken out in Haiti as workers with local unions staged protests against rising levels of crime. The strikes closed businesses in Port-au-Prince and other cities, as public transportation employees did not show up for work.

“We are calling on authorities to take action,” said Jean-Louis Abaki, a taxi driver involved in the strike. Abaki said that if Prime Minister Ariel Henry and the police chief want to stay in power, “they have to give the population a chance at security”.

Prime Minister Ariel Henry last week confirmed the appointment of the Inspector General, Frantz Elbé, as the Director General of the National Police of Haiti (PNH), following the resignation of embattled former chief Léon Charles. Henry urged Elbé to restore peace in the country.

“We would like public peace to be restored, that we return to normal life, and that we find the way to democracy. Finally, we would like to organise elections,” the Prime Minister said.

This is a lead article from Caribbean Insight, The Caribbean Council’s flagship fortnightly publication. From The Bahamas to French Guiana, each edition consists of country-by-country analysis of the leading news stories of consequence, distilling business and political developments across the Caribbean into a single must-read publication. Please follow the links on the right-hand side of this page to subscribe, or access a free trial.

Photo by Pedro da Silva

The Bank of Jamaica (BOJ) is facing widespread criticism over its decision to increase the key policy rate in a bid to curb inflation.  

After inflation broke through the upper limit of the 4% to 6% target in August to reach 6.1%, the BOJ had signalled its intention to increase interest rates, but there was uncertainty about the size of the increase.

In one of its most significant moves since the passage of new legislation which increased central bank independence, the BOJ announced that it was adding a percentage point (100 BPS) to the overnight interbank rate it pays on cash it holds for banking or deposit-taking institutions.

The increase, which is the first such change in 13 years, aims to “moderate” the economy’s growth potential given fears of continued inflation. 

However, the rate increase has the potential to also increase bank lending rates that could further limit credit to productive sectors, and hike household credit through higher interest rates on consumer loans for cars, credit cards and mortgages.

“While the decision to increase the policy rate will impact growth in the short run, the Bank and the Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) are concerned that if we do nothing now, and high inflation becomes entrenched, growth over the longer term will be adversely affected,” said BOJ Governor Richard Byles. 

Though the BOJ recently revised its growth outlook to a range of 7% to 10% for the current fiscal year ending March 2022 (up from 5% earlier in the year), many are concerned that the rate increase will limit the economy’s prospects for countering the large economic contraction in the previous year. 

In a media release, the Private Sector Organisation of Jamaica (PSOJ) criticised the interest rate hike, calling it “a risk to Jamaica’s medium-term economic growth prospects”. “Any movement in interest rate upwards is going to have a dampening effect on the economy. It’s going to slow down investment decisions and slow down consumer spending and also affect motor car purchases and mortgages because the cost of borrowing is going to go up,” said PSOJ President, Keith Duncan.

The BOJ said that while it understands the BOJ’s concern about a trend of inflation building, it “is of the view that there is basis for concern that the now tighter monetary policy stance — in the context of adverse macroeconomic conditions arising from the COVID-19 pandemic, the Government’s programme to maintain a fiscal surplus, and uncertainty among economic actors about short term price changes due to supply chain issues — presents a risk to Jamaica’s medium-term economic growth prospects”.

Through its Economic Policy Committee, the PSOJ urged the central bank to exercise “caution in respect of transitory inflation” which is expected to be short-lived. It called on the BOJ to expressly clarify the specific economic circumstances that would give rise to further changes in the policy rate. 

The IMF’s Q3 World Economic Outlook sought to allay inflation fears by emphasising that “recent price pressures for the most part reflect unusual pandemic-related developments and transitory supply-demand mismatches”. The IMF also signalled that “inflation is expected to return to its pre-pandemic ranges in most countries in 2022 once these disturbances work their way through prices”. 

Noting that elevated inflation related in part to high food prices, is also expected in some emerging market and developing economies, the IMF cautioned that “central banks should generally look through transitory inflation pressures and avoid tightening until there is more clarity on underlying price dynamics”. 

The BOJ has also come in for strong criticism from the Jamaica Manufacturers and Exporters Association (JMEA) which labelled the move as “misguided,” warning that it would “further impoverish the most vulnerable in society”.

Several regional economists have also voiced concern about the rate hike. Dr Adrian Stokes, Senior Vice-President and Head of Insurance and Wealth Management at the Scotia Group Jamaica argued that he does not “see the justification for tightening monetary conditions in a depressed economy” given that he expected the rise in inflation to be temporary. 

“If you compare what’s happening in the US where they have a much stronger economy, inflation is running much further ahead of their target and the Federal Reserve there is just beginning to think about tapering, not even to tighten monetary conditions,” said Stokes referring to the mid-year US inflation rate of 5.4% compared to their target of 2%.

Meanwhile, former Opposition Senator and University of the West Indies academic, Dr Andre Haughton contended that given the structure of Jamaica’s economy and the scale of the pandemic, the BOJ should think about other objectives other that just satisfying an inflation target”.

Responding to the concerns about the impact of the policy decision, BOJ Governor Richard Byles maintained that “the suite of policy actions beginning with the modest increase in policy rate has been calibrated to minimise the adverse impact on growth”. “BOJ’s assessment, therefore, is that even with these actions, and potential future actions, GDP growth will still fall within the range of 7% to 10% for fiscal year 2021/2022,” he added.

With the hike, the BOJ has joined a growing list of economies including Brazil, Chile and Norway that have increased interest rates to curb inflation, even before more developed economies like Britain and the US. The BOJ’s mandate, as set out in the Bank of Jamaica (Amendment) Act 2020 is the maintenance of price stability and financial system stability, with price stability being the primary objective.

This is a lead article from Caribbean Insight, The Caribbean Council’s flagship fortnightly publication. From The Bahamas to French Guiana, each edition consists of country-by-country analysis of the leading news stories of consequence, distilling business and political developments across the Caribbean into a single must-read publication. Please follow the links on the right-hand side of this page to subscribe, or access a free trial.