CARICOM Chairman Commends WTO Director-General

Media Release Courtesy the Government of Antigua and Barbuda

Following the appointment of a senior Caribbean diplomat to the cabinet of the new World Trade Organization's (WTO) Director-General, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, CARICOM Chairman Prime Minister Gaston Browne has commended the Director-General for living up to promises she made to both the OECS and CARICOM Heads of Governments.

Ambassador Stephen Fevrier, who heads the OECS mission in Geneva at the WTO, has been recruited by Dr. Ngozi to be a senior advisor to the WTO Director-General. Ambassador Fevrier’s appointment follows meetings held between the CARICOM Heads of Governments and the Director-General earlier in the year. During those meetings, Dr. Ngozi had given an undertaking that she would be paying more attention to issues affecting small states; and that she would appoint a high-level official to her office to ensure that these issues are taken into account in the work of the WTO.

In making the announcement, Dr. Ngozi noted that Ambassador Fevrier will be joining her office as senior advisor and that Ambassador Fevrier had served as OECS Ambassador and Permanent Observer to the United Nations in Geneva. He is also the incumbent coordinator of the CARICOM caucus of ambassadors in Geneva.

Ambassador Fevrier, a national of Saint Lucia, joins the WTO with a distinguished record of service on regional trade and development issues. He has served in various technical and advisory capacities in the Caribbean and Pacific regions, as well as being the OECS envoy in Geneva.

In welcoming the appointment, Prime Minister Browne noted that

"This appointment provides a positive sign that the WTO is recognizing the importance of the challenging issues that confront small states."

"This first step must lead to a place where special and differential treatment, so important to CARICOM Member States, is entrenched as a core principle of WTO and all states, big and small, must play according to the rules."

The OECS Director-General, Dr. Didacus Jules, also welcomed the appointment of Ambassador Fevrier and noted that while his departure from the OECS Commission creates a loss, Ambassador Fevrier was now ideally placed to continue to advocate for the issues of concern to small states, including the OECS.

Angelica. A. O'Donoghue

Assistant Director-General of Communications, Office of the Prime Minister, Antigua and Barbuda

OECS Communications Unit

Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States

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The Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States (OECS) is an International Organisation dedicated to economic harmonisation and integration, protection of human and legal rights, and the encouragement of good governance among independent and non-independent countries in the Eastern Caribbean. The OECS came into being on June 18th 1981, when seven Eastern Caribbean countries signed a treaty agreeing to cooperate with each other while promoting unity and solidarity among its Members. The Treaty became known as the Treaty of Basseterre, so named in honour of the capital city of St. Kitts and Nevis where it was signed. The OECS today, currently has eleven members, spread across the Eastern Caribbean comprising Antigua and Barbuda, Commonwealth of Dominica, Grenada, Montserrat, St. Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, St Vincent and The Grenadines, British Virgin Islands, Anguilla, Martinique and Guadeloupe. 

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