Two Independent Senators Support Legislation for African Export-Import Bank's Caribbean Base in Barbados

Two independent senators have backed the legislation to give diplomatic-level benefits for the Caribbean base of the African Export-Import Bank (Afreximbank) here, noting the significance of two regions tied by history.

The African Export-Import Bank Bill sets out the conditions for a headquarters agreement for Afreximbank to be domiciled in Barbados, as the senators noted the historical significance of forming development ties with the ancestral home of nine in ten people born here.

But while Senator Chelston Brathwaite praised the bill as seeking to strengthen cooperation between survivors of colonial exploitation, Senator Kristina Hinds gave cautious support and urged against sentimentality in cooperation with fellow developing countries.

Senator Brathwaite, a former international civil servant and diplomat, noted that South-South cooperation is based on solidarity and is designed to confront the global issues of poverty, climate change and global health emergencies among others. This, he suggests, is a solidarity whose time has come especially as it allows a joint effort in the face of the emerging global challenges.

He said people in this region are fully aware of the challenges with which they are confronted including those which impact health and marginalisation.

Dr Brathwaite said: “These challenges are not simple and easy to resolve. The platform that has been developed and shared around the world and which is encapsulated in the Bridgetown Initiative clearly points out the dimension and depth and seriousness of the challenges we as small developing countries face in seeking to play our role in this global world.”

He suggested that South-South cooperation and solidarity with our “brothers and sisters” in Africa are fundamental to addressing the challenges of the past and the future.

“We cannot believe that those who come from the North are going to solve our problems,” Senator Brathwaite told fellow lawmakers.

He cited food insecurity where the Caribbean produces only 20 per cent of what is consumed, noting that the region needs significant investment in technology, infrastructure and human resources to address that challenge.

“How many of the development banks of the North have put money for us to invest in food security? It is not in their strategic interest because we import the food from exactly where the money is coming from,” said Senator Brathwaite, the agricultural development expert who once led the Inter-American Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture (IICA).

He said the Afreximbank bill represented a good example of the kind of relationship Barbados should forge.

“The historical and cultural ties will benefit our regions,” he added. “It is time to work together on the ground in our own context and reality to begin to identify specific areas in which we could cooperate without depending on others to facilitate the cooperation.”

Senator Hinds framed the development as an example of the Caribbean “shifting its gaze” away from the West and taking risks with other partners.

Despite looking east to China, Barbados had not engaged with the global south in a meaningful way, she said as she welcomed the development of a relationship with Afreximbank which is setting up its Caribbean office here in the bank’s first venture outside of Africa.

But the political science academic said that while she had no quarrel with building a relationship with the African continent through the bank, Barbados would have to ensure that what emerges from the agreement redounds to the benefit of the groups and individuals it is intended to support.

Declaring that she wholly supported the bill, Dr Hinds, the head of the Department of Government and Politics at the University of the West Indies Cave Hill Campus, said it is important to ensure Barbados gets the best deals while remaining vigilant and not “cloudy-eyed”.

“We must go beyond being guided by sentiment”, she said.

“In all things, we must be careful and we must be on our guard always. While being supportive of something, one has to be able to say, ‘I support this but we have to be careful in what we are doing’.”

Noting that banks tend to serve a particular purpose, she said that while it is fine to be guided by common experience, South-to-South collaboration and historical legacy, Barbados also had to be careful not to “essentialise” even when talking about the African Motherland.

In introducing the bill to the Senate, Leader of Government Business Senator Lisa Cummins noted that it sought to extend the same privileges, exemptions, immunities and terms and conditions as those already offered by Barbados to every regional and international institution, United Nations agency and diplomatic offices, including the United States Embassy, that serve other countries in the region.

Senator the Reverend John Rogers joined fellow independent lawmakers in supporting the bill along with government senators Andwele Boyce and John King.

(SP)