Claude Clarke, a manufacturer and former trade minister, has opened a potentially fruitful debate over what he has branded as Jamaica's 'expensive infatuation' with the Caribbean Community (CARICOM).

Mr Clarke's primary focus, in an article in The Sunday Gleaner, is on the large trade deficit that Jamaica has maintained with Trinidad and Tobago, its main regional trade partner, since the early 1990s. He called for a major review by Government of this "disastrous and clearly unsustainable situation".

Perhaps it is high time that Jamaica has this debate and come to a definitive position on the kind of relationship it wants with the Community. We believe that it is better off to be in than out.

There are genuine issues to be discussed about governance mechanisms in CARICOM, and what needs to be done to maximise any benefits under the Revised Treaty of Chaguaramas. But Jamaica has to bear responsibility for its inappropriate economic policies, entrepreneurial lethargy, a sometimes sniffiness towards the Caribbean and failure to maximise areas of comparative advantage.