We also got perspective from Minister of Agriculture Jose Mai. Months ago, he said it was just too impractical for Belize to seek out CARICOM as a first option trading partner - and said we should look instead to Central America.
So, now that government is - out of necessity - giving Haiti and Jamaica a cold shoulder - is it part of a larger move away from CARICOM in trade as well? Mai rejected that and struck a more conciliatory tone today:
Jose Mai, Minister of Agriculture
"I did not say that it's not viable to trade with Caricom, I said that it's more difficult to trade with them because they put all kind of measures in place. In the case of us putting on requirements for VISAs for the Jamaicans, it has nothing to do with trade, it has to do with the human trafficking that's passing through the country, we've seen the data showing the amount of Jamaicans that come into the country and do not leave and so where are they, where are these Jamaicans? And so the government has to react to this and so the Jamaicans may not be happy with it but we also have a responsibility to act and to safeguard our borders from human trafficking, it is a global problem, human trafficking, and if the US, as our trading partner, tells us, listen guys, you need to tighten on this then we need to do so, so I believe that it is in the best interest of the country to do something about it and it's also in the best interest for our Jamaican friends, government to do something about it too because many of these people do not reach the US you know, these people die on the way to the US, I've seen people, I've heard of it, I've seen families speak about it, that families die and so I think we're all in this together so it's not a punitive measure because of lack of trade or lack of easy trade to the Caricom, that's not the case."
