A few days later I was in Martinique. There the sugar on the breakfast table had the words "Mémoire d'une culture, Sucre de canne de la Martinique". Elsewhere it made clear its origin was with a local sugar factory and to complete the image of sugar as a part of the island's culture, linked the past to the present, with a simple line-drawing of a traditionally dressed worker cutting cane.

I make this point not to indicate the absurdity of importing sugar from the Indian Ocean via the US to a country with a cane sugar industry that wishes to add value by branding local cane products. Nor do I make these observations to be critical of a tourism industry that seems not to see value in enhancing the Barbadian experience through the offering of local product. Rather I do so to make the point that there is a pressing need for the Anglophone Caribbean to seize control of its own identity and culture and use this as a tool to create a branded national environment, as have the French in Martinique.

This is a concept that is not much known in the Anglophone Caribbean.

Boosting success whether it is in investment attraction, tourism or trade negotiations depends to an extraordinary extent upon perception. When nations and regions are competing they are to a significant extent measured by the way they present themselves and the level of confidence they engender.

~~Adz:Right~~Creating country awareness means conveying positive messages about for example safety, taxation, cultural achievement, education, the environment, political probity and stability. It requires government, the business community, those in the arts, education and the media to all be confident and joint owners of a "product" about which they care.

For example if one were to brand Jamaica this might be built around its culture, its achievement and its ethos. This sense of Jamaica would form a part of the message that accompanied everything from the island's athletes and reggae stars to its national airline, rum, sugar and even the promotion of the island as a centre for offshore service industries.

This is not to suggest that style should take precedence over substance. Rather it is note that an element of the region's future and competitiveness is likely to come from the way in which countries present their uniqueness to the world.

This is especially important in nations where there is new leadership, changed policies, economic transformation or a vibrant and successful business sector. It is one reason why the Dominican Republic has just embarked on such an approach and may well in about a year reinvent itself internationally in a manner that enhances its profile and reach.

Closely allied to this is the need to commercially protect national identity. That a small packet of sugar in a Barbados could claim to be Demerara despite it distant Indian Ocean origins indicates how much the region has lost, how much it needs to do to take back ownership of the origin of products for which it is known, and the extent to which it needs to protect its Geographical Indications and intellectual property.

A geographical indication, or GI as it is known, is "a legally enforceable sign used on goods that have a specific geographical origin and possess qualities or a reputation that are due to that place of origin". Most commonly, a GI consists of the name of the place of origin of the goods. Agricultural products typically have qualities that derive from their place of production and are influenced by specific local factors, such as climate and soil. Whether a sign functions as a geographical indication is a matter of national law and consumer perception.

According to the World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO), the use of geographical indications may also highlight specific qualities of a product which are due to human factors that can be found in the place of origin of the products, such as specific manufacturing skills and traditions. That place of origin may be a village or town, a region or a country.

These are lessons that the French Caribbean has learnt well.

Regrettably, the Anglophone Caribbean while a signatory to all such international conventions, has not taken advantage of GIs. As a consequence Demerara has become over the years a generic international name for a type of sugar; the word Jamaica is now used internationally on almost any product to suggest that either it, or its origin is exotic; and because the word Caribbean is not protected in the national laws of the countries of the region, it can not, it seems, be protected as a Geographic Indication.

The consequence is that the region is having to go down the far less effective route of trademarks. Thus the Caribbean Tourism Organisation and the Caribbean Hotel Association have adopted a trade marked logo using the word Caribbean while the West Indies Rum and Sprits Producers Association will shortly reveal a rum marque for authentic Caribbean rum.

In the US in the 1940s there was a famous legal case relating to ownership of a calypso. The Trinidadian musician, Lionel Belasco, under the title L'année passée, had written the music years earlier. Subsequently Lord Invader used this tune for his calypso "Rum and Coca Cola". But later both the music and the song were "re-published" by a US music publisher and then covered by the Andrew Sisters. Mr Belasco sued for the copyright to the melody, while Lord Invader sued for the copyright to the words. Both won their cases because in the US their rights were protected.

The message is that Caribbean Governments, industry and those who own intellectual property need to be much more aware of value of national branding. They need also to defend jointly their intellectual property and the origin of the region's unique products if they and the Caribbean are ever to benefit from the enormously valuable and desirable assets that they possesses.