Elizabeth Morgan | Never a grace period for new governments

A GENERAL election is being held in Jamaica today. Jamaica’s registered voters are going to the polls to make their choice.

This column has pointed to the importance of foreign policy issues and their impact on the Jamaican economy. Reference is made to the August 20 article titled, ‘With elections looming, are the political parties assessing and addressing foreign policy issues?’ In the leadership debate, there was one question posed which could be placed in the category of foreign policy, which includes foreign trade. The general trend is that foreign policy issues carry no weight in general elections; it is the domestic bread-and-butter issues which count. In Jamaica’s case, as a small island developing state, the foreign policy issues affect the domestic bread-and-butter issues.

Whoever is victorious tonight in these elections will almost immediately have to deal with the foreign policy issues. This is why a permanent civil service, including the foreign service, is indispensable.

FEAR TRUMPING COURAGE

We are in an interesting time of world leadership, which has been addressed in this column in an article of July 2 titled ‘Uninspiring global leadership in this Trump era’.

This weekend, the US Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) television channel, which has just had its federal funding eliminated, repeated Ken Burns’ 2014 documentary series, The Roosevelts: An Intimate History. This showed courageous leadership in a time of global crisis which led to the creation of the United Nations system. It also showed the remarkable leadership of President Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s wife, Anna Eleanor Roosevelt. A quote from Eleanor Roosevelt that resonates is “Courage is more exhilarating than fear and in the long run it is easier”.

Today, we are seeing very few examples of courage in leadership as US President Donald Trump sets about dismantling the global system to promote peace, security and prosperity, imperfect though it may be, which President Franklin Delano Roosevelt and his wife, Eleanor, worked to establish.

Many global leaders have been pandering to President Trump as fear and expediency determine the direction of foreign policy, and courage takes a back seat. Perhaps, historians will look back at this period and say pragmatism was a wise strategy.

As of Thursday, in this global environment, Jamaica’s prime minister-elect, his designated foreign minister and other Cabinet members will have before them all the foreign policy issues on the agenda including:

· US military in the Caribbean

As pointed out last week in this column, there is a US military build-up in the Caribbean, and this was also addressed in The Gleaner editorial on Saturday, August 30.

· US tariffs

A US federal appeals court ruled President Trump’s reciprocal tariffs as illegal, exceeding his power to impose tariffs by invoking emergency powers.

It seems this will go to the Supreme Court. Commentators are concerned about whether the Supreme Court will uphold the ruling of the federal appeals court. If the Supreme Court does agree that the tariffs are illegal, they could go to the Congress where the Republican majority could decide to pass legislation allowing the president to apply tariffs.

So, the Trump tariffs remain for now with their uncertainties.

UNGA

The meetings start almost immediately, as the 80th Session of the UN General Assembly (UNGA), with the anniversary commemoration, starts on September 9 and the General Debate (high-level week) on September 23. The theme of the 80th UNGA is ‘Better together: 80 years and more for peace, development and human rights’.

It is doubtful whether President Trump actually supports this theme as he withdraws the US from various treaties and institutions, and threatens to reduce US funding to the UN. He is also threatening not to issue visas for delegates from some UN members and to sanction members for their votes.

This is also a time of conflicts across the globe, increase in defence spending, heinous violations of human rights, and the seeming building of new alliances. This could be a very challenging anniversary session for the UN in New York.

CARICOM

Remember, also, that Jamaica is the current chair of CARICOM’s Heads of Government and has undertaken certain responsibilities in that capacity.

So, as always, there is no grace period for whoever forms Jamaica’s government tonight. Work starts tomorrow morning.

Elizabeth Morgan is a specialist in international trade policy and international politics. Send feedback to columns@gleanerjm.com