- Junior Dowie/Staff Photographer
Opposition Leader Edward Seaga (left) discusses his 2004/2005 Budget Debate presentation while Audley Shaw, Opposition spokesman on finance, looks on during yesterday's post-budget press briefing at the Jamaica Labour Party's Belmont Road, New Kingston, headquarters.
OPPOSITION LEADER Edward Seaga said yesterday that the proposed Caribbean Single Market and Economy (CSME) is unlikely to meet its deadline for implementation by the end of the year.
Speaking at a press briefing following his 2004/2005 Budget debate presentation, Mr. Seaga argued that there were still 77 matters related to the CSME that require attention within the next eight months.
"It would require virtually devoting a considerable portion of the legislative time of the Government of Jamaica to get all of this through," he told journalists at the Jamaica Labour Party's (JLP) Belmont Road, New Kingston, headquarters. The Opposition Leader noted that only two pieces of legislation related to the CSME which have, to date, passed through Parliament.
"This is why I made the point that, on the basis of this extraordinary workload, we need to determine whether the CSME is of any value," Mr. Seaga said. He was referring to comments made during the Budget Debate on Thursday, when he criticised Jamaica's impending participation in the CSME.
ILL-PREPARED
The JLP Leader had said that Jamaica was ill-prepared to enter the CSME, and claimed that such a move would "expose the vulnerability of the economy to even greater importation and dislocation of local production without compensating exports".
Yesterday, Mr. Seaga reiterated that Jamaica sees far more benefits from participation in trade with the United States than it does from countries within the Caribbean region. As such, he suggested the country would stand to benefit more from the impending Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA) agreement, expected to go on-stream in 2005.
"Whether you have a CSME in place or not, CARICOM is bargaining as a collective unit with the FTAA, which is good," he said. "(This) is one of the reasons why you should stay in CARICOM, but a CSME is not likely to create any bigger bargaining chip."
