Mottley said the poverty and underdevelopment that Barbados and other Caribbean countries inherited from the British and other European powers at the time of independence, meant that the Region did not have the stability to easily move to the next level of growth while carrying large national debts and fighting the pandemic at the same time. Twelve Member States of CARICOM are today represented on the Commission. The CARICOM Reparations Commission was established in July 2013 by the Region’s Heads of Government, to pursue reparations from the former slave-holding and colonising countries in Europe. Mottley made her position known while addressing a recent virtual media engagement organised by the CARICOM Reparations Commission (CRC) over which she has oversight as the current Chairperson of CARICOM’s Prime Ministerial Sub-committee on Reparations. “I do believe we must make the argument that a combination of the validity of the reparations argument, the evidence that clearly shows there was no bank account left with us at the point of independence, there was no development compact and, yet, there is a legitimate expectation by our people that independent governments would right the wrongs of the past and would do so quickly by giving people opportunity in this part of the world,” she said. The initiative was named after George Marshall, who was the US Secretary of State at the time. The Prime Minister was referring to the US-funded economic recovery plan for the Western European nations that were devastated in the second World War. Mia Mottley, is calling for a Caribbean Marshall Plan and for reparations to address “the economic decline” that the Region will face as it confronts the negative impact of the pandemic and the inherent social and economic inequalities that continue to hinder its development. Suspensions of the Common External Tariff and Safeguard certificatesīarbados Prime Minister, the Hon.Plenipotentiary Representatives accredited to CARICOM.