JAMAICA: 2009 SUMMIT OF THE AMERICAS (SOA)

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 KINGSTON 000167

SIPDIS, SENSITIVE

STATE FOR WHA/CAR - ANDRE CADIEUX, BRIDGET PREMONT
WHA/EPSC - DAVID SILVERMAN, ROBERT SCHWARTZ
WHA/PDA - CHAD WEST, JOHN DICKSON

E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: ECON EFIN ENRG ETRD PGOV PREL KPAO KSUM JM XL
SUBJECT: JAMAICA: 2009 SUMMIT OF THE AMERICAS (SOA)

REF: STATE 8206 (292031Z JAN 09)

Summary
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1. The Government of Jamaica (GoJ) has high expectations for the
2009 SOA to be held April 17-19 in Port-of-Spain. Post is
implementing a number of public diplomacy outreach initiatives, and
the SOA has begun to receive attention in the local media.
End Summary.

Foreign Minister's Expectations for SOA
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2. Responding publicly to a question concerning expectations for
meeting President Obama at the SOA, Jamaica's Minister of Foreign
Affairs and Foreign Trade Dr. Kenneth Baugh recently stated: "It
will be my first Summit of the Americas. The question is - what
will be President Obama's attitude to the Caribbean? There has been
some neglect [by the U.S.] over the past ten years. During the
[U.S. Presidential] campaign, there was some sign the U.S. will give
preference to the domestic economy. We need a larger common market
in the region. The various FTAs can coalesce. The U.S. is our
biggest trading partner. The CBI ends in 2010/2011. We are in
negotiations to see what we will do. Possibly we might negotiate
FTAs with the U.S. and Canada. We hope the SOA will give an
indication of Pres. Obama's approach to the Caribbean and Latin
America. I also hope to establish contact with Secretary Clinton.
The issue of Cuba will come up. We [CARICOM] have discussed this at
all our meetings. We called on the U.S. to end the blockade. NAFTA
has been successful - we need a repeat in this region. We are
keeping our eyes on CAFTA - it seems to have been a success so far."


Meeting with Jamaica's SOA Coordinator
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3. EmbOff shared reftel talking points in the course of a private
meeting with the GoJ's SOA Coordinator, Amb. Paul Robothom, the
Under-Secretary for Bilateral and Regional Affairs in the Ministry
of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade (MFAFT),on the morning of
February 23 (note: SOA website has not yet been updated to indicate
that Robothom, rather than former MFAFT Permanent Secretary Amb.
Douglas Saunders, is the GoJ's SOA Coordinator).


4. Robothom agreed that the upcoming Summit represented an excellent
opportunity for the nations of the hemisphere to coordinate efforts
across a broad range of issues, from energy and the environment to
the global economic recession. He asked whether President Obama
planned to meet separately with Caribbean leaders. He said the
Canadians had invited Caribbean leaders to a breakfast on Saturday
morning, April 18, and noted that this breakfast apparently would
fill the only time designated on the "Provisional Programme" for
"Bilateral Discussions." (Comment: President Obama is extremely
popular throughout the region, and Robothom clearly intended to
convey that Caribbean leaders would welcome an opportunity for a
separate meeting. End Comment.)

Post's Planned Public Diplomacy Outreach Initiatives
-------------- --------------

5. Kingston's Public Affairs Section (PAS) is planning the following
PD initiatives preceding the Summit:
-- press assistants are identifying a senior Jamaican journalist to
attend the Foreign Press Center tour to Washington to meet with
principals and experts on the Summit;
-- a senior Jamaican journalist has agreed to serve as moderator at
the pre-Summit civil society forum in Trinidad and will stay on to
report on Summit events;
-- an enthusiastic press release to all media announcing President
Obama's first visit to the region;
-- placement of an op-ed from Washington in coming days;
-- depending on the amount of interest generated by mid-March, PAS
may organize a media roundtable to discuss the Summit's theme,
"Securing Our Citizens' Future by Promoting Human Prosperity, Energy
Security, and Environmental Sustainability;"
-- alternatively, a roundtable discussion with NGOs and other
interested contacts;
-- a digital video conference with a Washington expert and invited
selected contacts and press.

SOA Op-Ed Featured in Jamaica Gleaner newspaper
-------------- --


6. The first op-ed discussing the Summit appeared in The Sunday
Gleaner on March 1. Frequent contributor Jorge Heine, who holds a

KINGSTON 00000167 002 OF 002


Chair in Global Governance at the Balsillie School of International
Affairs in Waterloo, Ontario, urges Caribbean leaders to use the
Summit to highlight the specific conditions of the Caribbean and its
needs as different from those of Latin America. Heine argues that
opening the door a bit wider to free trade with Caribbean nations
will not be enough to solve the region's many problems. He urges
leaders to seek a meeting with President Obama to impress upon him
the urgency of the situation in the Caribbean and recommends
presenting him with a wish list of five items: 1) come through on a
campaign promise of debt relief for the neediest developing nations;
2) re-think the "war on drugs" by turning around the "wrong-headed
approach" to fight this problem without tackling the U.S. demand
that drives it; 3) stop the repatriation of convicted criminals to
the islands; 4) "dust off the old development tool kits" as the
adage "trade, not aid" does not apply to a region that still needs
to build up its productive capacity before having enough goods to
trade in significant amounts; and 5) loosen up immigration
restrictions for the entire region since English-speaking Caribbeans
do very well in the U.S.
HEG