...After Bernal, who next?

RICKEY SINGH

Now that ambassador Richard Bernal, a professional economist with some 35 years of experience, has offered his resignation as director general of the Caribbean Regional Negotiating Machinery (CRNM), two related questions arise: What, if any, effort has been made by the political directorate of the Caribbean Community to retain his services and, secondly, what arrangements are to be pursued for the CRNM to maintain its current identity as an institution of Caricom in international trade negotiations?

Perhaps, for a start, some response could come from Jamaica's Prime Minister Bruce Golding as chairman of the Prime Ministerial Sub-Committee on External Economic Negotiations; if not Caricom's current chairman, Prime Minister Hubert Ingraham of The Bahamas.
For all the current and earlier controversies it has attracted over the 11 years of its existence, the CRNM has clearly earned its reputation as a very valuable mechanism in this region's engagement with the international community.

As passionate debates continue over the pluses and minuses of the concluded Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA) between the European Union (EU) and the Caribbean Forum (Caricom and Dominican Republic), there has come the announcement of Bernal's resignation from the CRNM, effective June 30, to join the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) as an alternate executive director for the Caribbean, in the first instance.

Bernal, who had also distinguished himself as a Washington-based ambassador for Jamaica, has been serving the CRNM, which has lead responsibility for trade negotiations, for almost six and half years as director general.

He had assumed that post following the departure of Sir Shridath Ramphal, whose immense reputation as a key regional player in the inauguration of the African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) group, had enabled him to give visionary leadership to the CRNM during its first four years when he served as chief negotiator.

With Sir Alister McIntyre joining Ramphal as chief technical adviser to build a solid foundation for the CRNM, Jamaica's former Prime Minister P J Patterson, long-term chairman of Caricom's prime ministerial sub-committee on external economic negotiations, was to place on record in 2001 that: "There is no gainsaying that the CRNM has served us well and is now regarded as a model for developing countries engaged in other arenas of external economic negotiations..."

ADMIRERS/DETRACTORS

Consistent with Caricom's policies to widen and deepen the region's economic integration movement, Ramphal had steered the CRNM into wider Caribbean waters, beyond the shores of Caricom, to include the Dominican Republic and Cuba in what constitutes CARIFORUM for structured international negotiations.

For his part, Bernal's leadership as director general, enabled by a team of Caribbean professionals, will best be remembered for the intense, complex and very challenging negotiations he led over some four years, concluding with last December's initialling of a full Economic Partnership Agreement with the EU.

Never one to run way from an intellectual challenge, Bernal would only say, when questioned why he chose to resign now from the CRNM, that: "I think it is time to move on..".

Was he frustrated, as is being unofficially suggested, by differences with the Caricom secretariat, with which the CRNM collaborates in fulfilling its mandated functions and reporting, as required, to the prime ministerial sub-committee on external economic negotiations, as well as COTED (Council for Trade and Economic Development)?

His reply: "I prefer not to get involved in details at this time...but I have introduced a succession plan involving very able and experienced colleagues, and given the quality of support they deserve, I look forward to the CRNM continuing to serve the best interest of the Caribbean region."

SUCCESSOR-GILL?

Bernal has let it be known that the senior director, Henry Gill, is his choice to succeed him as director general. Currently acting in the post, while Bernal is on leave, Gill is viewed as part of the institutional memory of the CRNM. He has served, variously, under Ramphal as chief negotiator; McIntyre as chief technical adviser and Bernal as current director general.

A national of Trinidad and Tobago, Gill is well recognised for his expertise in international relations, working with regional, hemispheric and international agencies and institutions over the years that covered foreign policy, international trade and regional integration.

A former deputy permanent secretary of the Caracas-based Latin American Economic System (SELA), Gill worked as an independent consultant for some years with United Nations agencies, European Commission, Organisation of American States, Caricom and the Association of Caribbean States before joining the CRNM in 1999.

A smooth transition is therefore expected when Bernal demits office by June 30 to join the IDB. Before his appointment as CRNM director general, he had played a leading role in numerous negotiations on behalf of Jamaica and Caricom, including agreements on investment, intellectual property rights, trade agreements and debt reduction agreements with the international financial institutions.

Attention will soon be focused on the future role of the CRNM, as preliminary arrangements get under way for the coming negotiations for a long overdue new partnership accord between Caricom and Canada.
The role of the CRNM under new leadership is expected to be discussed at the forthcoming annual Caricom summit scheduled for July in St John's, Antigua, when this region's implementation strategy for the EPA will be considered.

There has been much focus on differing views on the concluded negotiations for a comprehensive EPA, in accordance with a mandate of our heads of government, but precious little indication of what implementation strategies are being put in place for what is now viewed as a "done deal", awaiting the ceremonial signing.

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