JAMAICA APPOINTED CHAIR OF WESTERN HEMISPHERE TRANSPORTATION INITIATIVE

Jamaica has been appointed chair of the executive committee of the Western Hemisphere Transportation Initiative (WHTI), a group comprising ministers responsible for transportation throughout the Caribbean region and the Americas.

Minister Robert Pickersgill made the announcement following his return from Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, where he went to attend the sixth ministerial meeting of the WHTI.

According to Minister Pickersgill, Jamaica was nominated by Costa Rica to assume chairmanship of the group, succeeding Brazil. The co-chairs are now the USA and Brazil, the immediate past president.

In making his presentation on Friday, August 26, Minister Pickersgill used the opportunity to focus on Maritime and Port Security Safety. He said that since the last ministerial meeting, the new international maritime security measures adopted by the International Maritime Organisation (IMO) on July 1, 2004 meant that Governments would have to change the way in which they approached maritime security and how flagships and port facilities did business.

Minister Pickersgill noted that the International Convention for the Suppression of Unlawful Acts against the Safety of Marine Navigation, 1988 which relates to the safety of fixed platforms located on the Continental Shelf will be the subject of a diplomatic conference at the IMO in November of 2005. In this regard he said that the SUA Convention closed the loop of anti terrorism measures. Minister Pickersgill further noted that since much of this region’s maritime trade is with the USA, (which has maritime security requirements additional to the SOLAS amendments and the ISPS Code), WHTI States have had to implement these special measures to reduce vulnerabilities against terrorism and minimise security risks associated with the business of maritime trade.

In the case of Jamaica, being a contracting government to the SOLAS Convention and recognising the need to protect and preserve the massive investments the government has made available for the maritime industry things such as port developments, transhipment, cruise facilities, our training institution which serves the CARICOM sub-region, our marine administration and fledgeling ship registry. Jamaica has wasted little time in preparing to comply with the new international maritime security requirements of the SOLAS amendments and the ISPS Code.

Continuing on Jamaica’s improved maritime observance, Minister Pickersgill said, ‘Through my own Ministry, the government appointed the Port Authority of Jamaica as the designated authority to undertake the nation’s security duties relating to port facilities and the Maritime Authority of Jamaica as the administration with discreet maritime security for the island’s flagships.’

The Minister also used the opportunity to recognise the co-operation and assistance provided by the USA with regard to formal training and audits of the port facilities. He highlighted the fact that before the island was ready, a joint agency USA team did port security site surveys of some of the port facilities and provided valuable feedback on their observations. Mention was also made of the fact that the USA sponsored training courses for the government and industry and were always available to provide advice and good counsel. It was noted that in April, Jamaica benefited from a visit from the US Coast Guard’s International Port Security Programme where they discussed the implementation of the ISPS Code. The US team informed that ‘Jamaica has substantially implemented the new maritime security measures and that having seen a number of best practices which could be used as a benchmark, they were going to recommend that those be shared internationally.’

Minister Pickersgill ended his discourse by noting, ‘Our respective port state control regimes provide an excellent medium for communicating and sharing information in a structured way. This should be explored. I know that this has reached a stage of great sophistication within the membership of the Paris MOU of the European countries.’ Continuing, he said, It is a model we can follow…we should now use these arrangements to our fullest advantage throughout the hemisphere.’

The WHTI is an element of the Summits of the Americas process, which is an institutionalised set of meetings at the highest level of government decision making in the hemisphere. Minister Pickersgill noted that the purpose of the WHTI which meets every two years, is to provide a forum for convergence and co-operation among the ministers responsible for transportation from the Summit of the Americas member countries.

The current membership of the WHTI stands at 34 countries. The Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC), the Inter American Development Bank (IDB) and the Organisation of American States (OAS) are also part of the group as member organisations.