Ann-Margaret Lim, Contributor
CARRINGTON
CARICOM SECRETARY General, Dr. Edwin Carrington, has noted that part of the community's strategy toward promoting sustainable development for developing countries in globalisation is 'the trengthening of South/South relations'.
He made this observation in his CARICOM year-in-review broadcast last week.
Local and regional trade experts agree that deeper South/ South cooperation and integration is the only way to cope with the fallouts affecting developing states in the world trade system under globalisation.
In light of this, the forecast date of January 23, 2006, is a further forward step in deepening South/South cooperation. This date heralds the official signing between Jamaica and her 14 CARICOM partners, signalling the formal announcement of the birth of the CARICOM Single Market (CSM) in Kingston, Jamaica.
EARLY DISCUSSION STAGE
The CARICOM Single Market and Economy (CSME) which looks toward a 2008 full implementation seeks to go further than establishing a Free Trade Area (FTA). It seeks to establish a Single Market and Economy. For the achievement of this goal, CARICOM has earmarked US$70 million to be used over a 10-year period.
Acting Assistant Director of the Foreign Trade unit at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade, Mr. Esmond Reid, also sees the introduction of the CSM as a precursor to the full implementation of the CSME. This regional trading bloc is an example of South-South integration which will help to cushion the shocks of drastic market liberalisation.
Mr. Reid discloses to JIS News that CARICOM, through its Council for Trade and Economic Development (COTED), is in initial discussions with MERCOSUR, the Latin American regional trade bloc that is the fourth largest in the world. "We are in the early discussion stage with MERCOSUR ... which constitutes Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay and Paraguay," says Mr. Reid
Founded in 1991, but officially inaugurated in 1995, MERCOSUR is a free trade area and customs union whose associate member states include Bolivia, Colombia, Peru, Venezuela and Ecuador.
It has a combined population of more than 190 million and a Gross National Product (GNP) of US$800,000 million.
BUILDING AND STRENGTHENING
The current negotiations with MERCOSUR of which Mr. Reid speaks is truly in its embryonic stage, having started just this year in Trinidad. COTED has not yet begun deeper discussions regarding necessary compliance measures among other integration issues.
However, Mr. Reid says that a good CARICOM partnership with MERCOSUR will be a step toward 'building and strengthening South/South alliances.'
Another probable benefit of such an alliance would be an improved trade relation with the European Union (EU), since they are MERCOSUR's leading trading partners, investor and development aid donor.
- JIS
