PRIME MINISTER P.J. Patterson has highlighted the successes of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM), which was formed 30 years ago at the Treaty of Chaguaramas.
Mr. Patterson says the integration has resulted in the solidifying of certain institutions, such as the University of the West Indies, and the flourishing of the Caribbean Development Bank, which existed before CARICOM.
Other institutions, which resulted from the formation of CARICOM are the Caribbean Disaster Emergency Response Agency (CDERA) in September 1991; the Caribbean Agricultural Research and Development Institute (CARDI), which was formed in 1975; the Caribbean Food Corporation (CFC) formed in 1976, and the Caribbean Tourism Organisation (CTO), which was established in 1989, among others.
Addressing the Caribbean Single Market and Economy (CSME), which is to come into effect by December 2004, the Prime Minister says it is "the most significant form of economic integration that could be pursued by any group of countries."
The CSME was conceived as an instrument to facilitate economic development of member states in an increasingly liberalised and globalised environment.
SINGLE MARKET
Prime Minister Patterson explains that there will be one single market across all the CARICOM states, without any barriers, and will seek to operate under a common regime in terms of the movement of goods and capital.
"In so far as the movement of persons are concerned, we are going to be extending beyond the present areas where professionals can move freely between one country to another. We have also included media personnel, musicians, and entertainers," he informs.
"It will have to be extended to the movement of persons who are engaged in corporate entities that will operate throughout the Caribbean and what it really means is that we are seeking to create a single economic space," the Prime Minister adds.
He says that CARICOM has had to adjust the timetable for implementation. "We would be ill advised to introduce something as far reaching as that before there is a better grasp by the business community, by organised labour, by government agencies and departments, and by the population at large, of the real implications of a single market and economy," the Prime Minister explains.
On the state of readiness of some of the CARICOM member states for the CSME, Prime Minister Patterson informs that some states may be able to go that route earlier, such as Trinidad and Tobago, Barbados and Jamaica.
Mr. Patterson also notes CARICOM's ability to promote the region's interest in international negotiations. "In all these negotiations, CARICOM has maintained cohesion, and that has served the individual countries much better than if we had sought to attempt those negotiations as separate entities," he says.
The Prime Minister argues that the 30-year-old alliance movement, of which he was a key participant in its formation as Foreign Affairs Minister at the time when Jamaica was one of four independent countries to sign the Treaty of Chaguaramas in 1973, is phenomenal because of its longevity and its measurable successes.
Addressing concerns as to whether the CSME will have a negative impact on Jamaica's already fragile industries, Prime Minister Patterson says: "A world where you can build inefficient industries behind the walls of protectionism, that world no longer exists. You might seek to prolong it for a while, but the end will come."
"What you have to do is to use the period for adjustment to become more competitive, and if we in Jamaica can't compete in certain fields with other countries in the Caribbean, then we are far less likely to be able to do so with more developed countries which, more and more, are insisting on reciprocity. They are not prepared to grant trade preferences without obtaining equal access for their goods," he notes.
The Prime Minister emphasises that as Caribbean people, "we will have to look at what we do best."
"I make mention of tourism. Our tourism workers are to be found in all parts of the Caribbean, our architects, our engineers and our accountants. Persons in the construction industry are moving beyond Jamaica into other parts of the Caribbean," he says.
On Jamaica's contribution to CARICOM, Prime Minister Patterson says: "Under successive administrations, Jamaica has always been integrally involved in the leadership of the regional movement. This begun with Michael Manley in 1972, even before than under the Most Hon. Hugh Shearer, we had become active in CARIFTA."
"In these days when there is so much discussion about the Caribbean Court of Justice, it is worthwhile remembering the extent to which Jamaica has contributed to the leadership of that process, beginning in 1976 in Kingston and then in 1988, at a Conference of Heads where the Most Hon. Edward Seaga was then the Prime Minister, and he rightly insisted that the Court should be established in a way that would make it immune to political influences and interference, and at the resent time, we have moved to the completion of that agreement," the Prime Minister notes.
Additionally, this leadership role, he says, has been extended to trade negotiations, where he has led external negotiations as Chairman, and Ambassador Richard Bernal as Director General of the Regional Negotiating Machinery (RNM).
Jamaica has also contributed to the leadership of the CARICOM Secretariat, where Roderick Rainford was one of the longest serving Secretary General from 1983 to 1992.
