Dana Marie orris (left), assistant lecturer at the University of theWest Indies (UWI), gestures during a presentation of a working paper on foreign policy that she co-authored with another lecturer, Diana Thorburn (centre), for the Caribbean Research Policy Institute. Beside them is Dr. John Rapley, CaPRI president. The paper was presented at a CaPRI seminar on Wednesday, UWI council room, Mona. - Rudolph Brown/Chief Photographer

John Myers, Business Reporter

LOCAL THINK tank, the Caribbean Policy Research Institute (CaPRI), says Jamaica's foreign policy is bringing little economic benefit to the country, suggesting instead that Government place its emphasis on forging stronger ties with North America.

A Foreign Ministry representative, Marcia Thompson, immediately attacked the group's position paper, saying the analysis lacked substance, and was sparse on recommendations.

"I am not happy with the paper because I don't think enough research was done," said Thompson at its presentation on Wednesday at the University of the West Indies.

Jamaica, in the past few years, has been building relations with China and Venezuela whose volatile president, Hugo Chávez, is at odds with the United States, but CaPRI, suggested this week it was in the country's interest to redefine its priorities, saying most of its trade is done with the Americans.

CaPRI, in its latest publication Jamaica's Foreign Policy: Making the Economic Development Link as part of the 'Taking Responsibility' series, argued that Jamaica's investment in its missions abroad were not providing economic value.

Jamaica, it said, spent about $1.56 billion to maintain its foreign missions around the world last year; more than $2 billion is projected this year.

"We can't do everything and we need to focus and prioritise and if the purpose of our foreign policy would be to accelerate development in the country, then that should be the criterion that we use to assess where we allocate resources," Dr. John Rapley, president of the CaPRI, told the Financial Gleaner on Wednesday, following the presentation of the paper co-authored by Diana Thor-burn and Dana Marie Morris.

The authors argued that with its limited resources, it was important for Jamaica to move "from an ideologically based foreign policy to one based on pragmatism" in order to generate the economic links necessary to grow the economy.

CaPRI pointed out that Jamaica was gaining very little from its foreign missions in areas such as China, Europe, Latin America and even CARICOM.

The group noted that despite the current PetroCaribe oil facility and other loan arrangements with Venezuela, the region presents very little opportunity in the way of trade for Jamaica.

Furthermore, "this embrace of Chávez needs to be tempered with an injection of reality."

Thorburn and Morris singled out CARICOM, for example, where they noted that Jamaica has spent some $263 million this year to support the activities of the secretariat which is responsible for negotiating trade pacts for the region.

However, despite incurring such a huge expenditure, they argued that there is no evidence that Jamaica has received or will receive comparable economic benefits from the arrangement.

Jamaica needs strategic planning

It also warned the Government against its increasing relations with China, citing complaints from some African countries, which have received assistance from the Asian powerhouse, that investments by the Chinese were unrelated to direct productive activities that would result in the future development of their economies.

"China is willing to fund many projects, but Jamaica should be strategic in directing these funds to avenues that will be most productive and assist Jamaica in its quest to move forward in the global age," they urged.

In the case of the European Union, the publication pointed to the erosion of existing preferential trading arrangements, particularly for sugar and banana and the European bloc's indication to redirect aid to Least Developed Countries, which would exclude Jamaica and effectively result in the island getting far less aid.

"The reality is that the biggest market for our products is North America. In addition, the remittances that we have become so heavily dependent on originate in North America," the CaPRI noted in the research paper.

"China and Latin America are poles that we should exploit to the extent possible, but we should accept that the avenues for exploitation are limited."

Responding to Thompson's criticism, Rapley said the document was a working paper which would form the basis of discussion with different groups.

Rapley told the Financial Gleaner that meetings have been arranged with representatives of the Foreign Affairs and Trade Ministry and the business community for next Wednesday, following which CaPRI would development specific recommendations to improve Jamaica's foreign policy.

"It is therefore quite likely that we will get to the point of recommending that certain missions be closed and which ones are to be kept open," he added.

john.myers@gleanerjm.com