Press Statement: Meeting with US Secretary of State Marco Rubio
Speaking Notes for the Most Honourable Andrew Holness
Prime Minister of Jamaica
Press Statement: Meeting with US Secretary of State Marco Rubio
Wednesday, March 26, 2024
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Good afternoon,
It is my great pleasure to welcome United States Secretary of State, the Honourable Marco Rubio, to Jamaica. I have known Secretary Rubio for some time, and I have always been impressed by his deep knowledge and understanding of the region. Secretary Rubio, we are deeply honoured that you have chosen Jamaica as your first official stop in the English-speaking Caribbean. This visit so early in your term confirms the strength of the historic friendship and strategic partnership between Jamaica and the United States—one built on shared values, democratic ideals, and deep people-to-people ties.
Our nations have long been united by a common commitment to freedom, prosperity, and security, and your visit today reaffirms that bond.
Today, we engaged in productive and constructive discussions focused on strengthening this partnership and expanding opportunities for collaboration.
During our meeting, we addressed several critical areas of cooperation:
- Security: We reaffirmed our commitment to enhancing cooperation in combating transnational crime, ensuring the collective safety of our citizens and mutually secured borders. We discussed a Global war on gangs and there is already significant policy alignment with both countries in this regard. The United States has been instrumental in supporting Jamaica’s efforts to bolster its marine domain awareness and intelligence surveillance capacities, which are crucial in our fight against organized criminal networks.
We discussed expanded and repurposing development assistance towards our shared goals including security.
This will exponentially expand our cooperation in fighting lottery scammers, transnational organized crime, trafficking in guns and building safer communities. We are committed to ensuring our partnership delivers results in driving down criminality and trafficking in this hemisphere.
- Haiti: On Haiti, we look forward to continued partnership with the United States as we seek to work with Haitian leadership and stakeholders to address the ongoing crises in Haiti. The extraordinary humanitarian, civil and national security challenges in Haiti pose an acute threat to Haitians, to regional stability and indeed to its close neighbours including Jamaica.
We agreed that we must do everything we can, to stabilise the security situation in Haiti so that they are better able to build capacity and address their political and humanitarian challenges.
- Trade and Investment: Recognising the United States as Jamaica’s largest trading partner, with bilateral trade surpassing $3 billion in 2023, we explored avenues to further expand trade relations between our two countries. Renewal of the Caribbean Basin Economic Recovery Act (CBERA) was raised as a matter of critical importance to trade for ourselves and all CARICOM Member States.
We also explored means to attract increased U.S. investment into Jamaica’s emerging sectors. With our stable macroeconomic framework and positive growth trajectory, Jamaica is open for enhanced US investment across multiple sectors, including energy and near-shoring opportunities.
- Logistics: The discussion also touched on working with U.S. companies to leverage Jamaica’s location as a premier transhipment hub in the Americas. This will further bolster Jamaica’s work to become a major logistics hub for global trade.
- Labour: The United States and Jamaica have an 80-year-old history of bilateral labour agreements where we provide short-term skilled and semi-skilled labour in sectors such as agriculture and hospitality. We discussed ways to expand and enhance these agreements, including skills development partnerships to upskill and reskill Jamaican workers.
- Travel Advisory: We discussed the significant progress that we are making in bringing down all major crimes and that Jamaica today is safer than at any time in the last two decades. In fact, crime against visitors represents less than 0.01% of the more than 3 million visitors to Jamaica annually, we are committed to working collaboratively to ensure that travel advisories reflect the current realities and promote safe travel.
I am confident that the dialogue initiated today will lead to tangible outcomes, benefiting both our peoples and contributing to mutual stability and prosperity. Indeed, our concern for enhanced regional and hemispheric security and prosperity was recognized as a shared one.
I wish my CARICOM colleagues who are now in Kingston, productive meetings with the Secretary this afternoon.
Jamaica remains committed to fostering a partnership with the United States—one grounded in mutual respect, shared values, and a collective ambition for a stronger, more resilient future.
I extend my sincere gratitude to Secretary Rubio and his delegation for their visit and for the productive and forward-looking discussions we have had.
We look forward to building upon this foundation, deepening our collaboration, and taking our partnership to new and greater heights for the lasting benefit of both our nations.
Ladies and Gentlemen, thank you very much for joining us and I now give the floor to Secretary Rubio for his press statement.