Jamaica and the rest of the Caribbean will take centre stage next month when it participates in a major conference with the United States of America (U.S.) on June 19-21 in Washington, D.C.

Details of the conference, which is being held under the theme, 'Conference on the Caribbean - A 20/20 Vision', were outlined recently at the University of the West Indies, Mona campus, at the opening ceremony of a seminar on Jamaica's (CARICOM's) future trade relationship with the U.S.

Gordon Shirley, Jamaica's ambassador to the U.S., said the objectives of the conference were to deepen and strengthen the nature of the dialogue between the governments of the region and the Government of the United States and to reinforce the dialogue between the people of the U.S. and the region.

"In having those dialogues, the goal is to identify the priority areas for growth and development in the Caribbean for the next 15 to 20 years and to strengthen the relationships between the U.S. and CARICOM by addressing these priority areas," Ambassador Shirley said.

He added that other objectives of the conference included promoting the Caribbean in Washington.

Relationship 'worn thin'

Senator Anthony Hylton, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade, said that over the years, the Caribbean's relationship with the U.S. had "worn thin".

He said this was evident through the erosion of the advantage provided under the Caribbean Basin Initiative (CBI), the systematic recruiting of large numbers of trained Caribbean nationals and the haphazard deportation of large numbers of persons from the U.S. to the Caribbean, many of whom he said are hardened criminals.

Meanwhile, Brenda LaGrange Johnson, U.S. ambassador to Jamaica, said the conference was timely and expressed confidence that the conference would be a success.