By Vernon Daley, Staff ReporterBUSINESSES ARE likely to fold and workers thrown out of their jobs when the Caribbean Single Market and Economy (CSME) becomes a reality, says University of the West Indies lecturer, Dr. Lucy Eugene.
Making a submission on the CSME to the Internal and External Affairs Committee of Parliament yesterday, Dr. Eugene stressed the need for more research on the impact of the proposed economic union on individual countries.
There is little research on the ways in which implementation of the CSME will either benefit or harm the interest of individual economies in the 15-member regional bloc, Dr. Eugene said.
"That's one of the flaws of this process," said the lecturer in the Department of Government.
According to her, Trinidad and Tobago is one of the few countries in the region that has done some analysis of the likely impact the CSME will have on various sectors of its economy.
Responding to questions as to whether the region, as a whole, was prepared for the 2004 deadline for the implementation of the economic union, Dr. Eugene said only a few countries, like Trinidad and Tobago, were ready.
She pointed to the Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States (OECS) which, she said, still needed to do more work in modernising its trade and tax laws, for example, to take full advantage of the CSME.
The UWI lecturer said the creation of the CSME was critical to the survival of the CARICOM countries in the new global environment of relaxed trade barriers and limited preferential access to markets. However, as part of the matrix, she said some workers would lose their jobs while some businesses would succumb to fierce competition.
"There will be labour displacement. There will be firms going out of business," she said.
Also making a contribution to the parliamentary committee yesterday was Dr. Trescot Wilson, Dean, College of Professional and Continuing Education and Human Services at Northern Caribbean University. According to him, more needed to be done to educate the Jamaican public about the impact that the CSME will have on their lives.
Committee member Sharon Hay-Webster agreed. She, however, suggested the Church, through its wide membership base and its ability to cut across sectoral interest, could be an important channel through which to expose people to issues relating to the economic union.
Meanwhile, Dr. Wilson said the Jamaican workforce would have to be upgraded to work within the new competitive environment.
"Our country requires a new breed of workers who know how to conduct business across cultural and national borders," he said.
