Johnson Smith to attend meetings in Brussels, London

JAMAICA - Minister of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade Kamina Johnson Smith is expected to leave the island today for Brussels, Belgium, where she will lead Jamaica’s delegation to three meetings related to ACP-EU relations. According to a news release from the Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade, Johnson Smith’s program begins with the 104th Session of the Council of Ministers of the African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) Group from November 28 to 30. The focus of the council of ministers will be the future of the ACP and the ACP-EU relations, when the Cotonou Partnership Agreement expires in 2020, the ministry said.

The implications of Brexit, the budget and other administrative operations for the Secretariat will also be on the agenda. Minister Johnson Smith will also participate in the 19th ACP Ministerial Trade Committee (MTC) and the 14th Joint ACP-EU Ministerial Trade Committee meetings on December 7 and 8, respectively. Both ministerial committees will deliberate on a wide range of traderelated issues.

In her capacity as high representative, the minister will update all three on matters relating to CARIFORUM. During the hiatus between the meetings in Brussels, the minister will travel to London from December 1 to 4, where she will address attendees in a Diaspora Stakeholder’s briefing.

She is also expected to meet with key United Kingdom officials on matters of bilateral and regional interest, including relations in the post Brexit era. As the minister prepared for her consultations overseas, she shared her principal goal of presenting Jamaica’s priorities, whether in building trade capacity, or in Diaspora engagement and representing Jamaica at the highest level, as many other Jamaican women in economics, politics and the society in general have done throughout the decades.

(Jamaica observer)