The View From Europe

On November 28, the US President-elect, Donald Trump said that “if Cuba is unwilling to make a better deal for the Cuban people, the Cuban/American people and the US as a whole, I will terminate deal”.

Being able to identify the policy changes that will transform the future is normally far from easy.

While most of the world has been focused on the outcome of the US presidential elections, other events of long-term importance to the region have been taking place.

Dispossessed by economic globalisation, faced with growing economic inequality, and wanting change, the people of the United States have elected Donald Trump to be their President.

In a few days’ time, the outcome of the US presidential election will be known.

Just over a week ago Google, Facebook, Amazon, Twitter, Netflix, Visa and many more premium providers of global web services, temporarily went offline.

What does solidarity between nations mean in the early twenty first century?  Are the values inferred practical or advisable, in a multipolar world in which self-interest, overlapping relationships and multiple economic and political ideas compete?

After a period of uncertainty, it has been confirmed that the Paris Agreement on Climate Change will enter into force on November 4.

How should the anglophone Caribbean respond to Brexit? Should it, based on the expert advice it has received from the Caricom Secretariat and its own trade negotiators, now be actively exploring with the UK an approach that secures an equivalent trade relationship to that which it has with the EU under the Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA)?

A few days ago the US President, Barack Obama, gave what in effect was a farewell address to the United Nations General Assembly.

Part 2 How should we regard the Caribbean’s future? Should it be with pessimism as some commentators suggest, or with optimism?

Over the next ten years it is likely that the ways in which we all think about the Caribbean will change radically.

In the middle of last month Danilo Medina was sworn in as President of the Dominican Republic for a second term.

A few days ago, Karolin Troubetzkoy, the President of the Caribbean Hotel and Tourism Association (CHTA), spoke to the media about some of the challenges that she believes now face the tourism sector in the region; the industry that in recent years has become the single largest contributor to Caribbean economic growth.

Last month the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) published a paper ‘Chinese rise in the Caribbean – What does it mean for Caribbean Stakeholders?’ Although, in its conclusions, it said little more than a number of Caribbean commentators have observed previously, it is important for three reasons.

As has been widely reported, Cuba has entered a new period of austerity.

Earlier this month Caricom heads of government met in Georgetown. Among the many issues they considered was Britain’s decision to leave the European Union.

  If the opinion polls are to be believed, the British electorate may vote by a small majority to leave the European Union (EU) in the country’s June 23 referendum.

There is no shortage of astute advice, or practical thinking about the region’s future. 

As each day passes, the internal situation in Venezuela deteriorates. Rumours of military coups and unstoppable violence swirl, street protests escalate, ordinary citizens suffer shortages of medicine, everyday foodstuffs, and almost everything else, while enduring rapidly escalating inflation.

In Havana on April 28, the Dominican Republic and Cuba agreed to explore the possibility of a partial scope trade agreement.

A few days ago the US House Foreign Affairs Committee unanimously agreed a draft bi-partisan bill that seeks to have the administration give greater priority to the US-Caribbean relationship.

Last week in Doha, many of the world’s major producers of crude oil tried, but failed to agree to freeze production, in order to stabilise and eventually increase prices.

How well will the Caribbean cope with the ‘disruptive technology’ and ‘disruptive innovation’ that in less than a decade could change structurally, employment, competiveness and consumer thinking in most developed and in many developing nations?

If you read the Financial Times, the Wall Street Journal, the Washington Post or some of the world’s other heavyweight newspapers, you may have seen in recent months, articles discussing the abolition of currency.