New Commentaries posted
Saturday 12 May 2012
The most recent commentary entitled.Caribbean Rum facing threat in the US, looks at threats to Caribbean rum producers in the US market arising from the US Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico using tax refunds from the US Federal government to subsidise the establishment of huge rum manufacturers in their territories and further to subsidise their marketing on the US mainland. Costly and time consuming arbitration at the WTO is an option, but the commentary argues this should be avoided in favour of early high-level meetings between the US and the Caribbean to reach a mutually agreeable arrangement.
Caribbean Rum Runner Costume
The previous commentary, Poles melt, we drown, looks at the disastrous effects of melting glaciers in the Arctic and Antarctica on small islands and coastal areas as sea level rises. It recalls that in 1982, the just independent Caribbean state of Antigua and Barbuda raised the question of Antarctica at the United Nations, at a time when few were taking Climate Change seriously.
Antarctica - melting ice causes sea level rise
The previous commentary discusses the decision of the Trinidad and Tobago government to move partial jurisdiction for finall appelate matters from the British Privy Council to the Caribbean Court of Justice. It is a half-way house that may not be achieveble, and satisfies neither one thing or the other. The commentary is entitled Trinidad and the CCJ - Still loitering.
Kamla Persad-Bissessar, Prime Minister of Trinidad and Tobago
The rapidly changing economic and political environment of Guyana is the subject of two commentaries published by the international magazine, Global -International Briefings in the Second Quarter of 2012. the two commentaries: Guyana: The difficulties of a minority government and The allure of new riches can be found as PDF files in the Lectures section of this website.
New Report on the Commonwealth after Perth
Friday 4 May 2012
In January 2012, The Round Table: The Commonwealth Journal of International Affairs, held an in-depth and wide ranging Conference at Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge University in the United Kingdom, on the the Commonwealth after Perth (the 2011 Commonwealth Heads of Government Conference). The event was attended by many experts on the Commonwealth including academics, writers, diplomats and the Secretary-General of the Commonwealth, Kamalesh Sharma. Sir Ronald Sanders, as a member of the Commonwealth Eminent Persons Group that produced for the 2011 CHOGM a seminal report on the future of the Commonwealth, was among the Speakers. The full report of the Conference is posted under "Lectures" on this website.
