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Bernal on his way to for
Washington...again

Wednesday, May 07, 2008

Bernal... was the principal
negotiator for the Forum of Caribbean States (CARIFORUM)
during the negotiations of the Economic Partnership Agreement
with the European Union which were concluded in December, 2007
after four years of tortuous
negotiations

Ambassador Dr Richard Bernal is
on his way back to Washington, this time to take up an executive
position at the headquarters of the Inter-American Development Bank
(IDB).

Bernal, who served as Jamaica's
ambassador to Washington for ten years, resigned from the post of
director general of the Caribbean Regional Negotiating Machinery
(CRNM), from which he was lead negotiator for the Economic
Partnership Agreement, the new trade package linking Europe and its
present and former colonies in the African Caribbean and Pacific
(ACP) states. The resignation becomes effective June 30, 2008.

A professional economist with over
35 years of experience, Bernal joined the CRNM on September 1, 2001
succeeding Sir Sridath Ramphal. For almost seven years, he provided
overall direction to the CRNM, supervising a staff of technical
experts and trade specialists operating from Kingston, Jamaica;
Bridgetown, Barbados; Castries, St Lucia; Brussels, Belgium and
Geneva, Switzerland.

He was the principal negotiator for
the Forum of Caribbean States (CARIFORUM) during the negotiations of
the Economic Partnership Agreement with the European Union which
were concluded in December, 2007 after four years of tortuous
negotiations.

Dr Bernal, known to colleagues and
associates as an affable and skilful negotiator, was head of the
CRNM technical teams advising the Caricom delegations at the WTO
ministerial meetings in Cancun and Hong Kong and FTAA ministerial
fora. He was the point person of external trade for
Caricom/CARIFORUM in numerous discussions with prime ministers,
presidents, ministers and heads of the WTO, World Bank, and the IDB
which has now grabbed his services.

Through his advocacy and
publications, he advanced policy on special and differential
treatment and small developing economies in trade agreements. He was
the first chair of the Working Group on Small Economies of the FTAA
and Caricom's lead negotiator in the Free Trade Area of the Americas
(FTAA) negotiations.

Previously, he was chief executive
officer of a commercial bank and served in various capacities in the
Bank of Jamaica, the Planning Agency/Institute and the Ministry of
Finance. He taught international economics and development economics
at the University of the West Indies for seven years.

Ambassador Bernal holds the degrees
of BSc, MA, PhD (Economics) and MIPP (International Public Policy).

"For 10 years, Dr Richard Leighton Bernal, a man born, it would
seem, to the service of his country, worked the corridors of world
power in Washington and held the Jamaican flag high as ambassador to
the United States," said an Observer writer of Bernal. "He walked
among the high-powered diplomats as if he were from the biggest and
richest country on earth and earned a respect well beyond the size
and population of this small island. In the global scheme of things,
trade-offs were the order of the day and those who could not play
the game would be left behind. Bernal brought Jamaican intellect and
energy, articulation, charm and a sunny personality that kept
Jamaica solidly in the mix. If it was egg, Jamaica was in the
red.

"It would earn him the gratitude of
a nation and nothing less than the country's fourth highest honour,
the Order of Jamaica (OJ)," the writer noted.

Serving from 1991 to 2001, Bernal
stayed longer in the job than any other Jamaican.

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