BASSETERRE, ST. KITTS, April 7, 2025 (MMS-SKN) — On her first visit to St. Kitts and Nevis, Chargé d’Affaires in the U.S. Mission to Barbados and the Eastern Caribbean, Mrs Karin B. Sullivan, took the opportunity to meet and hold discussions with the Federation’s Senior Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs, the Rt. Hon Dr Denzil L. Douglas, at his Port Zante office.
Mrs Sullivan, who will be serving in the capacity of Chargé d’Affaires of the US Embassy until the selection of a successor ambassador to his Excellency Roger F. Nyhus (former ambassador), was in the country to attend the 2025 Regional Security System (RSS) Council of Ministers Meeting, whose opening was on Friday April 4.
“St. Kitts and Nevis is in the process of transitioning its economy, continuing since 2004 when we closed the sugar industry, and the United States Government has been a partner in transitioning the economy,” noted the Rt. Hon Dr Douglas, who is also the Minister of International Trade, Industry, Commerce and Consumer Affairs; Economic Development and Investment.
In their meeting, held late Friday afternoon at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs office in Port Zante, they discussed the up to US 300 million dollars Export-Import Bank of the United States (EXIM) facility that the United States has made available to the Government of St. Kitts and Nevis. A Memorandum of Understanding was signed on November 25, 2024.
“We spoke of how this facility can be accessed for assisting in the transition of our independence on fossil fuel to the new and exciting renewable energy and clean energy, both geothermal and of course solar,” underscored Dr Douglas.
The Chargé d’Affaires was accompanied, at the Port Zante meeting, by Mr Gabriel Knight, Political and Economic Officer, and Commander Steve Hulse, Senior Defence Official/Military Liaison Officer. She had earlier that day attended the closing ceremony of the United States Air Force Southern Command (US SOUTHCOM) Lesser Antilles Medical Assistance Team (LAMAT) 2025 Mission held at the Marriott Resort.
According to the Senior Minister, they also looked at the developing challenges that are expected with regard to the new tariff increases that have been imposed by the United States of America on goods from St. Kitts and Nevis and other countries that are sent to the United States of America.
“Of course we believe that such can have some impact on the cost of living,” observed Dr Douglas. “But what was good is that the Chargé d’Affaires did indicate that the Government of the United States of America, having been the beneficial partner in our trading relationship, that the impact may not be as expected because the Government of the United States was prepared to look at the situation in an on-going way.”
He added that they also discussed the situation that existed several years ago when the relationships between the United States of America and St. Kitts and Nevis was such that the United States had made legislative provisions for the establishment of the Enclave Manufacturing Sector in St. Kitts and Nevis.
Out of that provision, there was the creation of the Industrial Estate where the factories employed thousands of the country’s young people who were assembling electronic parts that were sold into the US market without any tariff because they were from the status of similar factories located in Puerto Rico, one of the offshore islands of the United States of America.
The Foreign Affairs Minister underscored that St. Kitts and Nevis was certain that with the continuing support from the Caribbean Basin Security Initiative that the country will be able to benefit in terms of strengthening its security apparatus, and its security infrastructure, with this important initiative that was launched some twelve years ago in Trinidad and Tobago.
“We believe that this visit was timely, and of course was quite successful,” said the Rt. Hon Dr Douglas. “The matter of the pronouncements of the US Government with regard to the presence of Cuban service providers here, in St. Kitts and Nevis, did not really come up for discussion but we know that this is an on-going political matter.”
He said that St. Kitts and Nevis is “prepared to, as we have said, adhere to all of the international norms, all of the labour laws, national or otherwise, and so that there is no exploitation whatsoever of the Cuban service providers who are here in St. Kitts and Nevis in the area of health care, and in the area of support for our infrastructure especially in the Ministry of Works etc.”