Montserrat delays treaty signing

Montserrat has said that it will not sign the treaty establishing an economic union of the Organisation of Eastern Caribbean states today.

That’s because the “internal approval process has not yet been completed”, a statement by the government of the British territory said.

The formal signing ceremony will be held in St Kitts.

The economic union, when fully functioning, allows the free movement of capital, labour, and all goods and services, and involves common social, fiscal, and monetary policies.

Banana a major foreign policy issue

St Lucia is challenging the criteria for disbursement of some 200 million euros (US$287m), intended to help banana dependent economies in the African Caribbean and Pacific States (ACP) deal with the challenge of more competition in Europe.

Foreign Minister Rufus Bousquet says the banana issue will be the number one foreign policy issue for the island in 2010.

Bousquet says the matter is an important one because a recent deal on reduced tariffs on Latin American imports in Europe will compromise the ability of Caribbean banana producers to be competitive.

He told BBC Caribbean that St Lucia has a tremendous difficulty with the criteria of per capita income that is being used to determine disbursement of the funds.

The EU compensation funds are intended to help affected ACP banana economies readjust.