CARICOM Ministers Meet in Guyana Amid Climate and Economic Pressures

As climate disasters intensify, Caribbean leaders are doubling down on regional trade and economic integration as a lifeline for resilience and recovery.

Speaking at the 61st regular meeting of the CARICOM Council for Trade and Economic Development (COTED) in Guyana, Secretary-General Carla Barnett underscored the urgent need to confront the existential threat of climate change – highlighted by the catastrophic impact of Hurricane Melissa, which struck Jamaica on October 28, killing 45 people, leaving 15 missing, and causing an estimated $9 billion in damages. The Category 5 storm also battered Haiti and Cuba.

“The devastation leaves no doubt: climate change is not a distant risk – it is a present emergency,” Barnett said. “Strengthening our trade and economic performance is central to our survival and must remain a core focus of COTED.”

Her remarks came as four CARICOM heads of state visited Jamaica earlier this week in a show of regional solidarity and a bid to mobilize further support for recovery.

At the heart of the bloc’s response is the CARICOM Single Market and Economy (CSME) – a framework designed to enable the free movement of goods, services, labor, and capital across the 15-member community. Barnett welcomed the COTED agenda’s emphasis on advancing CSME objectives, calling it essential to “collective, strategic growth in the face of mounting shocks.”

Marconi Leal, Belize’s Minister of State for Foreign Trade and chair of the meeting, echoed the urgency. “We meet amid complex geopolitical and domestic pressures that test our individual and collective resilience,” he said. “Hurricane Melissa was yet another brutal reminder of our vulnerability.”

Leal highlighted key initiatives under deliberation, including measures to accelerate the free movement of CARICOM nationals, implement the Community’s Industrial Policy and Strategy 2035, and operationalize Article 164 of the Revised Treaty of Chaguaramas – provisions that empower member states to respond more nimbly to economic and environmental crises.

As Caribbean nations confront escalating climate risks, COTED’s role in forging a unified, economically integrated front has never been more critical.