Belize Celebrates 50 Years With CARICOM

Belize recently celebrated fifty years of being a member of CARICOM. The organization was founded in 1973 by Barbados, Jamaica, Guyana and Trinidad and Tobago. One year later, on May first, Belize joined the group, further solidifying relations with countries in the region. Every year, Belize participates in CARICOM Week, which is dedicated to recognizing the importance of the group and appreciating the community. Deputy Director General of Foreign Trade, Tricia Gideon told us that this year’s activities will highlight Belize’s fiftieth anniversary with CARICOM.

 

Tricia Gideon, Deputy Director General, Foreign Trade

“There’s several reasons why it exists and  there are people who can delve into the history even better than I can, but one of the primary reasons is we’re small.  And when you have many voices advocating for an issue, it makes it easier. As we have had the Guatemala issue at the forefront for years.  And it hasn’t been a lobbying, and we haven’t been lobbying alone. We’ve had the support of our colleagues in CARICOM, as we have done for Guyana and their issue with Venezuela. When we look at climate issues, it isn’t done at one member state level. It’s done collectively. The reason we’ve been able to secure one of our biggest trade agreements with the EU is because we did it as a collective.  And it is through funding that the EU has given the community that we have benefited from a number of projects. On CARICOM week to celebrate the fiftieth anniversary. We’ve been doing it for years, but this year we are going to have a number of activities, but particularly focused on Belize in CARICOM for 50 years. And we have an exhibition at the library in Belmopan. This will be a moving, a traveling exhibition as well.  So other districts can appreciate it. We will also be doing presentation to high school and primary school students in Belmont Pan about what is CARICOM, who is CARICOM, and we will also be working with students in Duluth City, high school students for an art class. to paint what Caricom means to us and to identify some of the Caricom flags. So just a fun week of activities.”