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Caribbean Islands Foreign Relations
The Simmonds government was one of several moderateconservative governments to come to power (or, as in the case of
the Antigua Labour Party of Vere Cornwall Bird, Sr., to be
reconfirmed in power) in the Eastern Caribbean around 1980. Other
examples could be found in Dominica and St. Vincent and the
Grenadines. These new, generally pro-United States leaders found
themselves and their thinking compatible with that of then-Prime
Minister J.M.G.M. "Tom" Adams of Barbados, particularly on issues
of regional security. Their number eventually came to include the
Grenadian government of Herbert Blaize after the postintervention
elections of 1984 (see A Regional Security System, ch. 7).
The Simmonds government supported the October 1983 United
States- Caribbean intervention in Grenada and dispatched a handful
of police personnel to participate in the Caribbean Peace Force on
the island. The intervention was generally popular among the
population of St. Kitts and Nevis; some observers have suggested
that Simmonds called early elections in 1984 in order to take
advantage of this support.
St. Kitts and Nevis has been an active participant in Caricom,
the OECS, and the Regional Security System (RSS). The ninth meeting
of the Authority of Heads of Government of the OECS (the
organization's policy-making body) was held in May 1986 in St.
Kitts; as rotating chairman, Simmonds headed both that meeting and
the next one in Antigua in November of that year. Within the forum
of Caricom, Simmonds has advocated increased cooperation to curtail
drug trafficking and use within the region. Along with Dominica's
Mary Eugenia Charles and Grenada's Blaize, Simmonds has raised
objections to charges by leaders such as the late Errol Barrow of
Barbados that the United States has attempted to militarize the
Caribbean through the pretext of increased security aid and
cooperation.
The Simmonds government's relations with the United States were
generally smooth and productive. One exception to this concerned
the United States sugar quota policy. From 16,500 tons in 1984, the
quota allotted to St. Kitts and Nevis under the system of
preferential purchases for foreign producers was reduced to 7,500
tons by 1987, and there was little prospect for any increase in the
near future. The cut had a severe impact on the island nation's
foreign exchange position because of its continuing inability to
diversify its economy away from sugar production. The United States
government provided some direct food aid in the form of wheat flour
to St. Kitts and Nevis in an effort to ease the effect of the quota
cut on the domestic economy.
Most United States economic assistance to St. Kitts and Nevis
was channeled through AID and was generally intended to promote
economic diversification, primarily through infrastructure-related
projects. The major AID-funded project in the mid-1980s was the
South East Peninsula Road, which was scheduled to progress beyond
the surveying stage in late 1987. The Simmonds government hoped
that this new roadway would open up the peninsula, the area of St.
Kitts with the longest expanse of accessible beaches.
One rationale for the movement to full independence in 1983 was
the prospect of foreign aid from sources other than Britain and the
Commonwealth. Since 1983 the PAM/NRP government has pursued these
new sources avidly. On a bilateral basis, aid programs were
instituted with Taiwan and the Republic of Korea (South Korea). The
establishment of relations with Japan and West Germany also held
promise in terms of future bilateral aid. Among multilateral
sources, St. Kitts and Nevis benefited from assistance from the
OAS, the United Nations Children's Fund, and the European Economic
Community. It also continued to participate in aid and assistance
programs through the Commonwealth. The leading bilateral aid
sources among the Commonwealth countries were Britain and Canada.
Given the country's comparatively small area, population, and GDP,
even limited foreign aid programs had the potential for significant
impact, particularly in such areas as education, health, soil and
forest conservation, water supply and sewerage, and job training.
As a newly independent country, St. Kitts and Nevis also
qualified for loan funds from such multilateral financial
institutions as the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund
(IMF--see Glossary). In this regard, Simmonds was a leader in the
effort by Eastern Caribbean leaders to prevent the World Bank from
declaring their countries ineligible for concessionary development
loans through the International Development Association (IDA)
because of their high per capita incomes relative to less developed
states in Africa and Latin America. The success of this effort was
still in doubt in the late 1980s, as World Bank management
reconfirmed in 1987 that it still intended to phase Eastern
Caribbean states out of the IDA program.
Data as of November 1987
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