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Trinidad and Tobago To Chair Summit of Americas Process

U.S. official discusses fundamental summit commitments

By Eric Green

Washington File Staff Writer

Washington -- The Caribbean nation of Trinidad and Tobago has assumed the chairmanship of the Summit of the Americas process and in that capacity will host in 2009 the next gathering of heads of state of the Western Hemisphere's 34 democracies.

In a September 12 ceremony at the Washington headquarters of the Organization of American States (OAS), Trinidad and Tobago took over the chairmanship of the Summit process from Argentina, which hosted the fourth Summit of the Americas in November 2005. Trinidad and Tobago is the first Caribbean country to host the Summit, which was held in the United States in 1994, Chile in 1998 and Canada in 2001.

The U.S. Department of State has said the summit process provides the United States and its regional partners a way to address common political, economic and social issues in an atmosphere of mutual respect and cooperation. Summit objectives include promoting democracy, human rights and open trade markets.

The transfer of the chairmanship came during a September 12 ministerial meeting of the Summit Implementation Review Group (SIRG). The SIRG, which monitors implementation of the summit process and prepares reports for the hemisphere's foreign ministers, was created following the first Summit of the Americas in Miami and holds about four regular meetings each year.

At the September 12 SIRG meeting, John Maisto, the U.S. permanent representative to the OAS and summit coordinator for the United States, discussed what should be the "fundamental elements" of the summit process.

Maisto said those elements include reducing debt burdens owed by the poorest, most indebted nations -- an action that will translate into immediate tangible benefits for citizens of those countries. The United States, he said, has taken the lead in a plan to write off debt to Bolivia, Guyana, Haiti, Honduras and Nicaragua. Writing off the debt burden would result in a benefit of about $620 per person in those countries, he said.

"In countries where approximately $50 per capita is spent annually on health, think of what a $620 benefit could mean, for poor people especially, in terms of immunizations, education, housing, and training," Maisto said.

Remittances (money transfers) are another summit priority, Maisto said, pointing out the billions of dollars that are being sent each year by migrants to their native lands. Studies by the Inter-American Development Bank show that Mexico has become the world's number-one country for receiving money sent home by migrants in the United States. Maisto said U.S. and Mexican efforts to work with banks in both countries have dropped the cost of sending remittances from the United States to Mexico by as much as 50 percent.

"We need to expand programs to channel remittances into investment in local poor communities [in countries such as Mexico]," said Maisto.

Reducing corruption is another critical goal for the hemisphere, Maisto said. The official said the United States has announced a grant of $1 million to establish an Inter-American Anti-Corruption Fund at the OAS to support the organization's member nations in fulfilling their obligations under the 1996 Inter-American Convention Against Corruption. (See related article.)

Maisto also reiterated the importance of the Inter-American Democratic Charter, adopted in September 2001. That charter "enshrines the principles" that citizens of the hemisphere "have a right to democracy, and their governments have a right to promote and defend it," said Maisto. (See related article.)

Maisto said as "we march forward" to the 2009 summit in Trinidad and Tobago, "we must strive ? to identify summit commitments that are time-bound and measurable. Rhetorical debate is not what we need. It is time to take action."

Maisto said, "if we are to maintain the credibility of the summit process, we must make periodic, forthright assessment of our work, especially those initiatives aimed at providing greater opportunity for those at the bottom of the pyramid."

For additional information, see Summit of the Americas and Americas.

(The Washington File is a product of the Bureau of International Information Programs, U.S. Department of State. Web site: http://usinfo.state.gov)