Only Trinidad and Tobago Prime Minister Patrick Manning signed the Declaration of Commitment of Port of Spain yesterday.

Manning, who chaired the Fifth Summit of the Americas, signed the document on behalf of Heads of Government/State, following a retreat at the Diplomatic Centre in St Ann’s.

He acknowledged that the document had not found unanimous support from all 34 countries in the Hemisphere, noting, ’No one country is likely to get everything that country requires.’

The 97-paragraph document, which was negotiated by the countries over the past seven months, places an emphasis on fighting poverty, promoting development and social justice, and states that ’deep inequalities continue to exist in our countries and in our region’.

During the signing ceremony, Manning said he was ’extremely pleased’ at the outcome of the Fifth Summit, adding that the meeting ’has turned out to be a signal example of cooperation and collaboration between the countries of the Western Hemisphere’.

The Express spoke with Ambassador Luis Alberto Rodriguez, who has been spearheading negotiations on the Draft Declaration for the just under a year, about the decision taken by the other Heads of Government/State.

’What it was, was a consensus and they had asked the Prime Minister to sign on behalf of the whole group and this is what he did this afternoon,’ Rodriguez said.

’He signed the Declaration at a press conference on behalf of all. This was the mandate they gave him. There were some issues that they had some differences on, but they agreed through consensus that he would be the signatory as chair on the Declaration.’

The document was first presented by the National Secretariat at a meeting of the National Coordinators of the SIRG, held at the headquarters of the Organisation of American States (OAS) in Washington DC, on July 24, 2008. Foreign Affairs representatives of the 34 countries were involved in the negotiating process, which came to an end earlier this month.

Among the strongest critics of the draft declaration were Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, Bolivian President Evo Morales, Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega and Honduran President Manuel Zelaya.

Speaking to the Express yesterday, St Vincent and the Grenadines Prime Minister Ralph Gonsalves said ’you will never have unanimity in these documents’.

He added: ’I myself, there were little things here and there which I would have liked to have seen worded differently. The Summit came after the G-20 and couldn’t take into account all the considerations of the G-20.

’But by and large, it represents useful documents as part of an ongoing process to address the problems and the challenges. This is just not a one-off event and when 34 leaders of the Hemisphere meet and you can end without rancour and dispute, they feel optimistic. And I urge you to just not look at the text but to look at the context and that is critical in these circumstances.’