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Foreign and Caricom Affairs Minister Dr Amery Browne said Caricom may have missed an opportunity to acquire vaccines by not coming together as a region to approach suppliers and vaccine providers. He said some of the misunderstandings between countries, such as those between TT and India, could have been avoided if approaches had been done on a regional basis.
Browne was speaking during the Morning Show on i95.5 FM on Tuesday.
“Caricom has been clear as to its public position on the vaccine access challenge, very early.
"Once Dr Rowley assumed the chair of Caricom, a public statement was made which was one of the first of its nature, identifying the problem and presenting a clear position of advocacy of Caricom on behalf of all regions like us. And that was followed by two public statements agreed upon by the heads of governments of Caricom and put out under the letterhead of our organisation."
Brown said Rowley has also spoken at the level of the World Health Organization (WHO) with its director general, and this led to the proposal of a global summit, and the launch of the UN’s Only Together campaign, and Caricom played a major role in that.
“However, a number of issues have arisen which could have been avoided if done on a regional basis. That did not happen, in part driven by a sense of urgency in some capitals because they had numbers that had been expanding, and the need to tell their populations that 'Well we haven’t solved the riddle, but we’ve got something and that may help with the domestic scenario.'”
Browne said the negotiations also came against the background of a change in the global environment once a vaccine was developed.
He said a year or six months ago, there was this feeling of “we’re all in this together. But when the first vaccine was developed, we reset and reverted to basic instincts where greed, a sense of exploitation, profiteering and also nationalism, focus on home, get my people fully vaccinated and too bad for the rest. "And countries that put money into Covax to help with the research because of that underlying philosophy of equity, took action that ensured that Covax is hobbled and stymied.”
Browne said his meeting with Indian High Commissioner to TT Arun Kumar Sahu cleared up misunderstandings as to how the issue of vaccine donation and acquisition became tense between the two countries.
He said there was a frank, candid discussion between himself and Sahu.
“I started by letting him know why I asked him to come in, went into my own history as head of mission in Brazil, and described that my scenario would have been different, but I tried to put myself in his shoes dealing with a complex and diverse small country like Trinidad and Tobago and the unique fact that he would have to be treating with a lot of diaspora issues here, as well as state-to-state relations, and that could be a challenge for someone in such a high diplomatic position.
"He was also very frank in terms of what he can or can’t do in certain circumstances under the limitations he faces, but he was at great pains to emphasise there is great affection in India for the people of TT, not limited to any particular ethnicity."
Browne said part of the misunderstanding came from how the matter was communicated to various governments, which ran contrary to how governments normally communicate with each other.
“There seemed to be a reliance on global addresses and strong hints being provided in 2020 and so on. One of the key elements of the misunderstanding is what the PM flagged on several occasions, which was this sense that Caricom was being provided with a gift or a 500,000 allocation.
"The High Commissioner was very clear with me that the PM was correct, that never occurred and there was no regional allocation of this 500,000 vaccines. And it’s very unfortunate, as the PM indicated, that made its way into a tweet at the Caricom secretariat level, that’s still being sorted out, and that fed into almost a frenzy in the local media.”
Browne said the meeting resulted in a clear understanding of the situation between the two countries.
“The PM has written to the PM of India and the High Commissioner wasn’t able to give any time frame but did express his confidence that there would be a positive response to his request for both availability to purchase vaccines, which was the original intent for vaccinating our population and confidence we would be able to get some consideration with respect to vaccines outside the purchase arrangement.”
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