Taiwan Premier Visits Eastern Caribbean States

by Leroy Baker, Tax-news.com, New York

06 September 2001

Continuing their pursuit of financial assistance from other sources, now that help from the UK and the US is drying up, the five nations of the Eastern Caribbean that are reportedly considering economic union this week welcomed
Taiwan Premier Chang Chun-hsiung.

Arriving in Dominica after his first stop in St Kitts & Nevis, the Premier will journey on to St Vincent and Grenada. This is the highest-level visit from Taipei to the small Caribbean island nation to date; Charge d' Affairs at the Taiwanese Embassy in Dominica, Otto Yang, said the visit was aimed "at strengthening relations". The two nations established formal diplomatic ties in 1983.

"These face-to-face meetings will provide for better understanding between the two countries," Mr Yang said. Mr Chang was due to meet Prime Minister Pierre Charles yesterday. Taiwan is Dominica's biggest single aid donor.

Last week, Pierre Charles visited Libya along with fellow prime ministers Ralph Gonsalves of St Vincent and Keith Mitchell of Grenada.

The aims of the leaders are to seek technical and monetary aid through these contacts to help modernise their agricultural sectors. The territories cite reduced US and European aid for their cash-strapped economies, along with the 'fiscal colonialism' of the OECD's unfair tax competition initiative, as giving sufficient reason for the approach to third party states for assistance.

US assistance to the Caribbean has fallen from $225 million 10 years ago to $120 million today. With nearly 60% of this earmarked for Haiti alone, 13 other independent states share the remainder. In addition, the banana industry, the traditional economic linchpin of the OECS, is now in deep trouble following the success of the US attack on European Union preference for Caribbean imports over so-called 'dollar' bananas from US-owned Latin American plantations.

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