Alliance Proposed By Belize Leader

The prime minister opened a summit of Caribbean leaders on Thursday by urging an alliance between Central America and the Caribbean to confront the competition created by freer world trade.

“As individual economies, we do not have the populations or the private sector capacities to take on free trade overnight,” Prime Minister Manuel Esquivel said at the opening session of the Caribbean Community meeting.

The 13 community nations have a combined population of 5.5 million and a $12.6 billion gross domestic product.

Prime Minister Patrick Manning of Trinidad and Tobago said measures under consideration included a single Caribbean market and perhaps a common currency. Leaders also were to discuss privatizing the moneylosing regional airline, Leeward Islands Air Transport, which is owned by the community governments.