Edwin W. Carrington

Edwin W. Carrington (2011)

Edwin Wilberforce Carrington T.C. (Born June 23, 1938 in Parlatuvier) is a Trinidadian diplomat and politician and was Secretary General of the Caribbean Community ( CARICOM ) from 1992 to 2010 .

Life

He studied economics at the University of the West Indies and later at McGill University in Montreal, Canada. He then returned to the Caribbean and began a diplomatic career. Three years after the founding of CARICOM, he became its Deputy Secretary General in 1976, an office that he held until 1985. He was then elected Secretary General of the ACP States and represented this organization from 1985 to 1990. During this time, he lived mainly in Brussels, the seat of the ACP Secretariat. He was involved in the negotiations for the 1984 Lomé III agreement with the EEC . The group of ACP countries, which at that time consisted mainly of former British and French colonies, tried during this period to maintain the trade preferences they had with the former colonial powers towards the EEC. For the former British Caribbean states, this had become a problem, especially after Great Britain joined the EEC in 1973 (see Banana War ). Carrington was the only Secretary General from a Caribbean country in the history of the ACP Group.

After his term in office he returned to Trinidad and was appointed ambassador of his country to Guiana in 1991 . In 1992 he was elected Secretary General of CARICOM, which has its headquarters in Georgetown . He has held this office continuously since then. With the opening of the Iron Curtain in 1989 and the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991, the Caribbean countries threatened to lose support from Great Britain within the EEC (from 1993: EC ), since Europe's attention was now mainly focused on the states of Central and Eastern Europe. Before that, the Caribbean countries were able to attract European companies due to the lower labor costs and thus reduce their own unemployment somewhat. After the opening of the East, this option was hardly taken up by Western European companies. Likewise, Caribbean immigrants were suddenly no longer in demand as workers in Europe, as people from the former communist countries were crowding into the Western European labor market in large numbers. Under the leadership of Carrington, CARICOM tried to counteract this development through increased internal economic integration. The "Club", which previously only consisted of former British colonies, opened up, and so the former Dutch Suriname joined in 1995 and French-speaking Haiti in 1998 . The latter was a particularly big step because Haiti alone has more inhabitants than all other CARICOM members combined. However, due to the ongoing political turmoil there, the country only became a full member in 2002.

Based on the development of the European Union , the introduction of a common internal market (CARICOM Single Market and Economy - CSME) and a common currency were discussed. The former could only be partially realized due to the scattered geographical location of the member states and their different economic interests. The latter has also not been implemented to this day, but the East Caribbean dollar is a common currency of at least 6 smaller member states, which is also used by two non-member areas that are still British overseas territories ( Montserrat and Anguilla ).

Due to his long tenure, Edwin Carrington has become a kind of symbol for the integration of the Caribbean community. Since economic integration has not yet been achieved in depth, he has focused on cultural and social aspects in recent years. A joint program to fight AIDS in the region was set up, initiatives for freedom of travel between the member states were launched and joint cultural and sporting events were organized. Like the European Union, CARICOM does not pursue a uniform foreign policy, but in recent years Carrington has tried to establish a position for itself similar to that held by Javier Solana in the EU . During the presidency of George W. Bush in particular, he tried to position CARICOM as neutrally as possible. So he maintained good contacts both with the USA and with its declared opponent Hugo Chavez . Furthermore, contact with the large Spanish-speaking Caribbean countries was intensified, Mexico became an observing member and accession talks were held with the Dominican Republic . Furthermore, he tries to let CARICOM appear with one voice in international negotiations, such as the WTO and the UN Climate Change Conference , by coordinating diplomatic positions in advance. In doing so, CARICOM appears again and again as an opponent of a complete globalization of the world economy, since this disadvantages the economically weak and few export goods oriented states of the Caribbean. For fear of losing European sales markets, CARICOM also rejects US initiatives to join NAFTA or ALCA and also advocates lifting the US embargo against Cuba .

Carrington held the post of Secretary General of CARICOM until December 31, 2010. Subsequently, Lolita Applewhaite from Barbados took over the post of Secretary General between January 1 and August 15, 2011, before the previous Deputy Secretary General on August 15, 2011 CARICOM for Trade and Economic Integration, Irwin LaRocque from Dominica , became the new Secretary General of the Caribbean Community. Since 2011 he has been the Ambassador of Trinidad and Tobago to the Caribbean Community.

Web link

• Edwin Wilberforce Carrington on caribbeanelections.com
• Entry in rulers.org

Individual evidence

1. ^ NY Times: Europe's Old Colonies Are Getting Anxious as 1992 Nears (Interview from January 1, 1989)
2. ↑ Caricom.org: Ambassador Hon. Edwin W. Carrington. Retrieved May 3, 2018 . 
3. ^ The Wall Street Journal: Caricom: Q&A with Secretary General Edwin Carrington ( September 9, 2011 memento in the Internet Archive ) (November 18, 1998 interview)
4. ^ Council On Hemispheric Affairs: How EU and US Economic Policies Spell a Bitter End for the Caribbean's Sugar Industry (June 23, 2005)
5. ↑ Caricom.org: Remarks by his excellency Edwin W. Carrington, secretary-general of the Caribbean community (CARICOM) at the opening ceremony of the seventh meeting of the CARICOM-Cuba joint commission, March 3-4, 2005, Port-of- Spain, Trinidad and Tobago ( Memento of June 17, 2010 in the Internet Archive )
6. ^ Caribbean Community: Secretaries-general (rulers.org)