SINCE COVID-19 KILLED CARIBBEAN ECONOMY, U.S. SHOULD GIVE DEBT RELIEF, BROWNE SAYS

SAINT JOHN’S — The COVID-19 pandemic has decimated economies across the tourism-dependent Caribbean costing losses as high as 20 percent in some countries in just one year, the prime minister of Antigua and Barbuda and current chairman of the 15-member Caribbean Community said this weekend.

“Our biggest issue is funding at this point,” Gaston Browne said during a virtual conversation that was part of the Adrienne Arsht Latin America Center’s Leaders of the America series. “We need access to affordable financing. In fact, the region at this time is virtually facing a debt crisis.”

Browne reiterated his call for the United States to help small developing states in the Caribbean gain access to grants and low-income financing from international financial institutions, to reschedule debt payments and get debt forgiveness. He noted that for some countries in the region, their only choice has been to turn to China, which was giving out loans at two percent for up to 20 years with a five-year principal and moratorium.

“That is the type of funding that we need in order to continue to grow and develop,” he said, accusing international financial institutions of ignoring the financial blow that COVID has dealt. “Democracy and human rights are not achieved in conditions of poverty and want…These are issues that have to be addressed in order to sustain democracies within the Caribbean region.

With his twin-island nation one of the hardest hit, Browne said the economic effects of the pandemic have already caused countries in the Caribbean to “lose a decade in development. I don’t know if we can be waiting an entire decade to be recovering those lost gains.”