Gift flies south

Foreign Affairs Minister Knowlson Gift left for Bolivia yesterday on a lobby mission to get support for Trinidad and Tobago’s bid to be the headquarters of the FTAA Secretariat.

Gift will be addressing a breakfast session, which would be attended by all the Presidents and Foreign Ministers of Latin America and the Presidents of Spain and Portugal. Speaking with Newsday before his departure, Gift stated that a special invitation was issued by the President of Bolivia, Carlos Mesa, to the Foreign Affairs Minister of Trinidad and Tobago (himself) to attend the 13th Annual Session of the Iberian-American Summit. Trinidad and Tobago is the only Caricom member ever to have been invited to this meeting, Gift said, adding: “We are hoping to capitalise on this distinction by selling our product...We will be using this as the first of the Caricom promotional road events to market Trinidad and Tobago as the ideal location for the headquarters of the Free Trade Area of the Americas.”

Gift said the breakfast session at which he would be speaking has been organised by the Bolivan President. Bolivia is a key member of the Group as evidenced by the fact that the former Planning and Develop-ment Minister of Bolivia, Dr Luis Enrique Garcia, currently holds the position of President of the Andrean Bank, the premiere financial institution, which is located in Caracas, Venezuela. Stressing that the mission was a major attempt by the Government of Trinidad and Tobago to make a thrust into the heart of Latin America via the Andean Group, Gift said that a meaningful foray had been made into the Andrean Bloc during Prime Minister Patrick Manning’s last term in office (1991-95). At that time Gift was the Ambassador to Vene-zuela and Trinidad and Tobago became a member of the Andean Bank. Gift recalled that the then Prime Minister of Jamaica, Michael Manley said that Trinidad and Tobago’s initiatives in pursuing Caricom trade and investment facilities at the Andean Bank should be christened “the Gift initiative.” Trinidad and Tobago then became the first Caricom country to become a member of the Bank and Garcia visited this country and met Manning. The Summit was first held in 1991 and functions as a coordinating and consultative mechanism for discussions on topics of mutual interest. Its membership comprises 21 countries.