Is there positive hope for CARICOM Economic & Political Union?

By Stanford Conway
Editor-in-Chief-SKNVibes.com

(L-R) Prime Ministers Patrick Manning, Dr. Denzil Douglas and Tillman Thomas

Professor Norman Girvan of the University of the West Indies is one of those individuals who hold this view. The Professor believes that if measures are not in place to ensure decisions taken to deepen regional integration are enforced, this portentous perception could become a reality.

According to the BBC Caribbean, Girvan said the 15-member grouping had become stagnant due mainly to a failure to implement key decisions, and that regional leaders seem to lack the will to pass the Single CARICOM Act, which would ensure that decisions agreed regionally are automatically enforced nationally.

President Bharrat Jagdeo

Last Wednesday, Tillman Thomas and Patrick Manning, the Prime Ministers of Grenada and Trinidad and Tobago [T&T] respectively, visited St. Kitts and Nevis after stopovers in Dominica and Antigua/Barbuda to hold discussions with PM Dr. Denzil Douglas on proposals for an expanded union of the OECS, as well as political integration of the region.

The visits follow a mini summit held in Port-of-Spain on Thursday, August 14, where the PMs of Grenada, St. Lucia, St. Vincent and the Grenadines and T&T signed a Joint Declaration to establish a framework for closer cooperation towards the achievement of the single economy by 2011 and appropriate political integration by 2013 within CARICOM member states.

And the two PMs’ visits on Wednesday were primarily based on outlining the proposals with the aim of having the three countries’ Heads of Government affix their signatures to the Joint Declaration.

Minutes after the discussion held at the Marriott Resort among Dr. Douglas, Thomas, Manning and Nevis’ Deputy Premier Hensley Daniel, members of the press asked if this new initiative would be a failure as it was in the distant past with the West Indies Federation when the PMs of T&T and Jamaica made some disparaging remarks.

Minister of Finance and Trade Dr. Timothy Harris

“With the previous Federation it was more of a political without looking at the economics. I think we have developed over the years, and notwithstanding the failures of the past. 

That should not deter us from forging ahead with a new initiative where we have committed the leaders who are willing to do what is necessary, even to relinquish a certain amount of sovereignty to bring about an integration, whereby more opportunities will be created for the people of the region. 

Having regards to the global environment…what is happening to the world too, could we really face these challenges as this micro state? The situation in the world, to a certain extent, dictates that we come together as a unit within the region. So, we should not let what happened in the past deter us once there is an opportunity in forging ahead,” Thomas explained.

In support of Thomas’ explanation, Manning reminded the press of the late Dr. Eric Williams’ statement of “one from 10 leaves nought”.

“He made that statement in 1961 and when he made that statement I was 15 years old…I was in school. In other words, how could I accept liability for a statement I am sure at that time was made in good faith? And I am not so sure that I am aware of the circumstances that led to it anyway! The fact of the matter is that the leaders today have to operate on the basis of what faces us today, and we ought not to carry baggage of years gone by. I don’t have it…I don’t have the baggage! All I see is one Caribbean nation, and I see opportunities for bringing that about for the creation of a state that is more viable than how individual states are at this time.”

On the question of integration Dr. Douglas said the realities of the economic situation today are forcing Caribbean leaders to integrate. “We have to integrate, and it is because of those factors that I believe this new initiative will get us further than we have been in the past.”  ~~Adz:Right~~

However, despite Dr. Douglas’ positive view of the new initiative, he informed his two colleagues that the matter cannot be arbitrarily done and it has to be tabled in Parliament and discussed with the people of the twin-island Federation. 

Manning explained that the new initiative is a coalition of the willing and in no way would it prejudice the OECS desire to go to an economic union by 2009. He however stressed that the twin-island Republic would like to be part of that process and hope it would materialise by 2011.

He is also of the view that economic and political union would give the region not just the safety in numbers, but also greater economic weight as “we seek to move the Caribbean forward. We believe that the Caribbean comprises one people…we have a common heritage”.

In response to the question of what effect(s) the union would have on the EC currency, Dr. Douglas said he thought it was too early for them to look at the effect but “there is no question that the OECS economic union, one of the reasons why we think we should be able to succeed and advance on that, is because of the stability of our currency. And I think, to a large extent, as the Prime Minister of Trinidad and Tobago has just said, there is no knocking of that. In fact, as he said, it is going to help in the preservation of the economic union that the OECS is pursuing at this time. In fact, what the whole initiative is saying is that we should complete this by 2009…and to a large extent we are so confident about achieving this because of the stability of the OECS dollar”.

Dr. Douglas declared that discussions were held on how they would converge the different currencies of the wider Caribbean region, as the OECS is seen as a single unit moving more closely with the other currencies.

The visiting dignitaries however explained that two academics, former St. Lucian Prime Minister Professor Vaughn Lewis and Ambassador Cuthbert Joseph, would examine the process and provide recommendations as to the route CARICOM Heads of Government should take and the form that the integration movement should adopt.

PM Manning told reporters that his Grenadian colleague plans to convene a meeting of OECS leaders in a few days, to adopt a position on the issue. He also said there remains the need for other CARICOM nations to be sensitised about the initiative and he intends travel to Jamaica, Belize, the Bahamas, Haiti and Suriname on August 25-26 to acquire more signatories.

On his return to T&T, Manning described his visit to the three countries as extremely successful and noted “we had an entirely positive response from the three meetings we held”.

He also told media repr esentatives in T&T that his Cabinet has agreed to take the proposed political and economic union between the twin-island Republic and the OECS countries to the people of his country so they could have their say in the matter.

Manning told them that the initiative would ultimately result in a single currency: “It will mean a common currency, a common central bank in its ultimate incarnation. What steps we will take on that road is a matter for the experts to work out for us and then we’ll have some decisions to make.”

~~Adz:Left~~ Meanwhile, Jamaica’s PM Bruce Golding has called for a summit of CARICOM leaders to discuss the new initiative, especially with T&T knocking on the OECS door for entry. He noted that his government would evaluate Jamaica’s position on the proposed union on completion of the summit.

And in the South, President Bharrat Jagdeo said Guyana would have to see the model being proposed and consultations held before any commitment is made.

Last Thursday, Jagdeo told reporters that he has told Manning he has to see the technical work done and what model of political union was being proposed before he makes any commitment.

Jagdeo said there are different models including a federation, confederation or “a union with the union responsible for some aspects of community policy and or national states or member states retaining jurisdiction over other kinds of policies”.

He also indicated that it would be premature to speak definitively on Guyana’s participation in any political union before the technical work was completed and national discussions were held
Back on St. Kitts, former Minister of Foreign Affairs now Minister of Finance and Trade, Dr. Timothy Harris, said he was not sure that the timeline established for political union is feasible at this moment in time.
Dr. Harris claims that before the establishment of a political union, Heads of Government have to first fulfill the concerns of the CSME, the economic arrangements and the mobility issues.

“Until we are prepared to live up to that, the higher calling of the political integration will not come. It will basically be somewhat of a wishful thinking because the local governments will not surrender their national sovereignty unless the wider regional sovereignty will bring clear benefits; those clear incremental benefits have not yet been articulated in the vision proposed by Prime Minister Manning to my knowledge,” he said.

The Former Minister of Foreign Affairs said he understood that Professor Lewis and Cuthbert Joseph would be attempting to academically work out the process and “we will wait to see what comes out of that”.
Positively, there are many problems and deficits in the advancement of the CARICOM Single Market and even more of these towards a CARICOM Single Economy by 2015. However, on the face of it, the idea of T&T merging with the OECS countries to create an economic union seems feasible because of its oil revenues and very strong industrial base, despite what some critics may say.

But what about the other CARICOM member states, will they be unanimously accepted by the OECS countries, or will it be that they would be told “you are coming to suck the breast of the OECS”, now that the boot is on the other foot?

The West Indies Federation, a brainchild of the British, was established in 1958 with Jamaica, T&T, Antigua/Barbuda, Dominica, Grenada, Montserrat, St. Kitts-Nevis-Anguilla, St. Lucia, Dominica and St. Vincent and the Grenadines as its members, and the seat of government was Port-of-Spain, Trinidad.

The Federation did not survive as Jamaica, the most populous and prosperous member, signalled its intention in 1961 to leave that body, fearing that it would have had to shoulder the burdens of the economically underdeveloped member countries.

Shortly after, T&T followed suit and the Federation was dissolved in May 1962. Some six years after, the Caribbean Free Trade Area [CARIFTA] evolved. The political leaders of that era envisaged that in the advent of CARIFFTA, economic integration and cooperation benefits would have been equitably shared among its members, and it would have also given birth to the coordination of foreign policy among them.

From the bowels of CARIFTA we have seen the emergence of CARICOM, which was established by the Treaty of Chaguaramas on August 1, 1973 with Barbados, Guyana, Jamaica and T&T as signatories.

Today, we have seen the growth of CARICOM from four to a 15-member grouping that is supposed to be operating as a family unit. However, in the recent past, this organisation seems to possess a family that lives in disunity, as its members are seen to constantly disagree on the implementation of key decisions taken in making life better for everyone in the region.

It is therefore incumbent upon the Heads of Government to sit and intelligently discuss the way forward with the people of their respective countries, with the view of not only making the economic and political integration a reality, but also arriving at a consensus on the EPA between CARICOM and Europe.

There is strength in unity!