The United Bermuda Party cannot support associate membership in Caricom.

This is not objecting for the sake of objecting. We do not believe the community has been given enough information to demonstrate that the benefits of membership justify taking this step.

We believe that the Progressive Labour Party's history of misleading the public, operating in secrecy and, most importantly, of breaking their promises, has made it difficult for the people of Bermuda to buy their sales pitch on Caricom . There are many ties between Bermuda and the countries of the Caribbean. Our early histories run closely parallel to each other. All of us were colonised and impacted by the scourge of slavery. We have a common ancestry. Many Bermudians have family roots in the Caribbean and many people originally from the Caribbean now live in and make a positive contribution to Bermuda. Over the years, many Bermudians have developed business interests in Caribbean countries. We play the same sports, listen to the same music and eat the same food.

The United Bermuda Party believes that the ties we share with the Caribbean should be viewed with pride. They should be celebrated and encouraged. There is much we can learn from the Caribbean and much we can offer them.

But the ties that connect us do not on their own provide a good reason to join Caricom , a trade organisation that has no relevance to Bermuda's unique economic situation.

Caricom `s two principal objectives are the creation of a single market and a single economy, and coordination of foreign policy among member states. It achieves these goals by dropping inter-island customs duties, for example, or removing barriers to immigration and the movement of funds. These are measures that can be of no benefit to Bermuda. In the international trade arena Bermuda has a service economy, producing little in the way of trade products. The free movement of labour between Bermuda and the other islands is, of course, out of the question.

The distinguished officials of Caricom who visited Bermuda last week to assist the PLP with their sales campaign seem to have been hard-pressed to suggest many benefits for Bermuda that associate membership might bring with it. The arguments for associate membership include these:

Bermuda would have a greater voice on the world stage. Caricom `s negotiations with the OECD to get some Caribbean countries taken off its list of nations engaging in harmful tax practices were mentioned as an example. Some in Caricom must have forgotten that Bermuda fought hard and successfully on its own to avoid being put on the list in the first place.

Bermuda would be able to influence health, education and social policy in the region. We have had little difficulty doing that in the past, to the extent that it has been important to us.

Membership and the associated elimination of inter-Caribbean tariffs would produce competitive products and services of better quality. We would argue that the collection of duties is the primary source of Government revenue and the elimination of existing tariffs could impact dramatically on Government and its ability to provide for the people of Bermuda. Membership would provide opportunities for nationals to study and work in Caricom countries. But this is happening already, with Bermudians studying and working in the Caribbean since the early part of the last century.

Membership would produce increased employment and an improved standard of living. Of course, Bermuda currently has a standard of living and unemployment levels that are the envy of the world.

The fact of the matter is that no one has been able to give a believable account of the reasons for Bermuda's membership in Caricom . The PLP has been assuring Bermudians in meetings throughout the country that we will get our money's worth from Caricom . The PLP has promised that the $100,000 annual fee will be the limit of Bermuda's financial exposure. The PLP has promised that we will not be participants in the proposed Caribbean common market. The PLP has promised that they will not allow the free movement of labour from the Caribbean.

But the long trail of wasted money and broken promises that the PLP has left in its wake since 1998 gives us no confidence that these promises will be kept. We believe that it will not be long before we will be listening to a litany of excuses for making a donation to Caricom here, dropping some Customs tariffs there, bringing in some experts at our own expense, underwriting meetings and sports events...the possibilities are almost endless.

Of one thing we are sure. The present PLP Government and Caricom are both organizations whose members like to travel. Anyone who visits Caricom `s website will find that it has scheduled an astonishing total of 168 meetings during the first six months of this year alone - most of them meetings of Caricom groups, together with a few meetings of other groups considered relevant and important enough for members of Caricom to attend. Many of these meetings are in the Caribbean, but there are others in Washington, New York, Miami, Geneva, Australia, Mexico, Brussels, Madrid, Rome, Brazil, Venezuela, Vanuatu, Paris...it's a long list.

We have no fear that Government Ministers will try to attend all of them - they'd have to travel non-stop to get even close to that. Our fear is that, Government's promises notwithstanding, our officials will attend so many meetings that the increase in the Bermuda Government's bill for travel and living expenses will make the $100,000 annual fee look like pocket change.

Previous UBP governments proved that Bermuda is capable of achieving its national goals on the international stage. There is nothing that Caricom has to offer that we do not possess already or are not capable of acquiring on our own. We do not believe that Caricom addresses the unique needs of Bermuda and Bermudians. We do not believe that the PLP can be trusted to keep their promises nor protect the interests of Bermuda. Furthermore, surveys of public opinion have indicated that the majority of Bermudians does not support this initiative.

We encourage those PLP parliamentarians who have quietly expressed their support of our position to join us in questioning the value of membership in Caricom.