Caribbean: Leaders Agree To Accelerate Drive To Single Market
athena.tbwt.com By Peter Richards IPS Article Dated 2/20/2003
PORT OF SPAIN - Keenly aware of the slow pace of their progress towards a single market and economy (CSME) and buffeted by the ill economic winds swirling around the globe, Caribbean Community (CARICOM) leaders have agreed to a work programme to implement the agreement by 2005.
''The present global economic liberalisation and the proliferation of regional economic and trading blocs demand that we implement the CSME as a matter of urgent priority,'' said Trinidad and Tobago Prime Minister Patrick Manning at the leaders' summit last weekend.
It is ''more than time'' for the CSME, first conceived in 1989, ''to see the light of day'', added his Jamaican counterpart, P.J. Patterson.
''We dare not concede to other countries rights of access for the procurement of goods and services which are not available to us,'' he warned.
The CSME, which will remove all existing restrictions on the free movement of goods, services, capital and labour flowing between the 15 member countries, was supposed to start operating this year but delays in adapting national laws coupled with bad economic news, like a drop in tourism following the Sep. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks on the United States and the impact of the recent hike in oil prices, retarded progress, said the leaders.
They agreed that countries in positions to become ''CSME-ready'' before 2005 should do so; Jamaica, Barbados and Trinidad and Tobago signalled their intention to do so next year.
While the countries continue to push economic union, they were lukewarm to a proposal advanced by Manning for political union, many hinting that they feared having to give up political sovereignty.
Barbados Prime Minister Owen Arthur, who has lead responsibility for the CSME within CARICOM said the agreement would require ''heightened and deepened'' cooperation between nations in key areas of the economy, as well as a massive undertaking to harmonise policies and laws.
The implementation process calls for at least 400 legal enactments in member countries, he added.
Comparing the process to the creation of the European Union (EU), Arthur said the Caribbean arrangement is more challenging since the region lacks a super-national institution that can issue directives and has to wait for each country to translate its obligations into its domestic laws.
The Barbados leader said special attention should be paid to those countries lagging behind because, ''in the final analysis, the creation of a single market and single economy will depend upon the readiness of the least-ready member''.
Antigua and Barbuda Prime Minister Lester Bird urged his colleagues to move as quickly as possible.
”Conditions in several of our countries are at the worst they have been for some time. Economic growth has slowed, private investment, both local and foreign, has dwindled, meaningful aid has virtually disappeared, preferential markets for commodities have gone, tourism has declined and unemployment has risen.''
''These conditions are, at one and the same time, the motivation for completing the CSME quickly, and the cause of the process slowing down,” added Bird.
The region's economic problems do not appear set to end any time soon.
Oil-rich Trinidad and Tobago recently turned down a request by CARICOM states to provide a cushion against substantial increases in the price of crude oil and petroleum products as a result of a strike in oil producer Venezuela, which supplies many Caribbean nations at preferential rates, and possible war in Iraq.
They wanted Port of Spain to guarantee a ''pre-Iraq war oil price'' but Manning said that was impossible because his country has ''been experiencing difficulties of our own''.
The leaders' statement issued at the end of the two-day summit noted that at least five Caribbean states had failed to achieve positive gross domestic product (GDP) growth in 2002 and were unexpected to do so this year.
Leaders did have some positive news: they gave the green light for the establishment of a stabilisation fund with initial capital of 60 million U.S. dollars, rising to 180 million dollars within five years.
It will serve as a buffer for countries experiencing financial difficulties, such as Dominica, which has approached the International Monetary Fund (IMF) for assistance.
The move to establish the CSME comes at a time when the region is also engaged in a series of external economic negotiations, including for the Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA), which leaders say places significant strain on their resources.
They called for ''a high level meeting in the hemisphere to take stock and to review the scope and pace of the negotiations'' towards the FTAA, which would establish the world's largest trading bloc, grouping the nations of North, South and Central America along with the Caribbean.
CARICOM countries are also involved in challenges at the World Trade Organization (WTO) against EU sugar subsidies that, if successful, could also end an agreement that they enjoy as members of the African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) group of nations.
The region is also moving to enhance trade arrangements with Costa Rica and Canada while exploring an offer of a partial trade agreement with the member countries of MERCOSUR - Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay, Uruguay.
Experts at the University of the West Indies (UWI) have recommended also that the Caribbean conclude a customs union agreement with the Central American Common Market (CACM) - Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, El Salvador, and Costa Rica - as soon as possible and before the implementation of the FTAA.
''The time frame should be no more than one year to coincide with the CSME coming into force,'' said their report, noting that the goal should be free trade between CACM and CARICOM ''with a limited list of exemptions on both sides.'' For more discussion on this article and to see what others have to say click on the link below to go to discussion forums.
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