Caribbean Countries Seek Tariff System for New Trade Bloc
Leaders from 21 Caribbean Basin nations--including Mexico, Cuba, Colombia and Venezuela--agreed Saturday to pursue a regional tariff system to prepare for the future Free Trade Area of the Americas.
Cuban President Fidel Castro paid his second-ever visit to Santo Domingo for the Assn. of Caribbean States summit, where leaders pledged closer cooperation in promoting tourism, responding to natural disasters and fortifying tenuous air and sea transportation links.
The association’s member states have a population of more than 200 million and a $500-billion gross domestic product.
Leaders stopped short of creating what would be the world’s fourth-largest trade bloc. But in a declaration Saturday, they agreed that members should move toward a common tariff system to prepare the Caribbean for the FTAA and its target date of 2005.
In their summit declaration, leaders who once shunned Castro urged the United States to eliminate its economic sanctions against Cuba. They also called for Communist Cuba’s inclusion in FTAA talks. Washington insists that democracy must come first.
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