Antiguan Prime Minister Proposes Inclusion of Counterdrug Mechanism in Single Market

On June 13, 2001, the Caribbean media reported that at the opening of the fourth joint meeting of the Inter-Governmental Task Force on Drugs and Ministers responsible for National Security Antigua and Barbuda Prime Minister Lester Bird has pressed for the inclusion within the Caribbean Single Market and Economy mechanisms to deal with drug trafficking. At the meeting, P.M. Bird also bemoaned the absence among the Caribbean Common Market and Community (CARICOM) countries of an accord among themselves similar to the so-called Shiprider agreement with the U.S. The Shiprider agreement permits U.S. law enforcement agents to pursue alleged drug traffickers under surveillance into the territorial waters and air space of the signatory countries…[more]