Ross Sheil, Staff Reporter
Caribbean Community (CARICOM) Secretary-General Edwin Carrington (right) responds to a question yesterday at the organisation's end-of-year review press conference, held at Television Jamaica's studios on Lyndhurst Road in St. Andrew. At left is Desiree Field-Ridley, head of the CARICOM Single Market and Economy unit. - JUNIOR DOWIE/STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER
WITH THE planned merger of the domestic markets of several Caribbean Community (CARICOM) countries just two weeks away, Edwin Carrington, secretary general of the grouping, is optimistic of successful implementation.
The agreement will be signed at a ceremony to be held in Jamaica on January 23.
"... Of course, there will be details within the new year that one will have to clean up and undertake, but essentially the single market is complete as of January 1," Carrington told journalists yesterday during an end-of-year review press conference held at Television Jamaica's Lyndhurst Road studios in St. Andrew.
January 1 is the target date for the coming into effect of a single market arrangement in which specified occupational and professional groups will be allowed to work in other CARICOM territories without the need for work permits. Initially, university graduates, artistes, sportspersons and media workers will be allowed free movement across the single market area.
In addition to free movement of skilled labour, the CSME will also permit certain goods produced in a CARICOM member-country to be sold for the same price, without attracting duties, elsewhere in the region. The free movement of investment capital is also facilitated by the single market, which is being brought about by the revision of the Treaty of Chaguaramas, which established CARICOM.
The plan is to eventually establish and deepen the single market into a single economy after 2008 involving common macro economic targets and harmonisation of regional currencies.
The secretary general boasted that CARICOM achieved single market status quicker, 33 years, than European countries took, 35 years, to form the European Union (EU) on January 1, 1993.
READY FOR IMPLEMENTATION
So far, nine countries, including Jamaica, are ready for CSME's implementation. But three countries have been delayed until April 1. St. Vincent and the Grenadines and St. Kitts and Nevis have done so because of national elections and Grenada has had to recover from damage caused by Hurricane Ivan. The Bahamas will not join the CSME because it is not a member of CARICOM's common market.
However, Desiree Field-Ridley, head of CARICOM's CSME unit, acknowledged there remained challenges. She said the private sector was organising to take advantage of the CSME but "... they are not at this point at time really where they should be."
See related story in the Business section.
