The Big Three and little CARICOM in the Caribbean

May 17, 2009 Features / Columnists, Ronald Sanders

By Sir Ronald Sanders
The government of the Dominican Republic (DR) has applied to become a member of the Caribbean Community and Common Market (CARICOM) and heads of government of the regional organisation will consider the application at their meeting in July.
There is not much to consider.

CARICOM countries along with the DR form CARIFORUM and last year they each signed an Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA) with the 27-nation European Union (EU) which overtakes the objectives of CARICOM’s slow-paced Single Market and Economy in many aspects.
Professor Norman Girvan has pointed out that “the EPA defines the Dominican Republic as part of the ‘region’: the DR has an economy that is larger than that of any single CARICOM country and the equivalent of 64 percent of the combined size of all 14 CARICOM economies. The existing CARICOM-Dominican Republic free trade agreement covers only goods, has not yet been extended to services, and does not contemplate extension to trade-related issues.

The EPA’s Regional Preference clause obliges CARIFORUM states to extend to each other the same treatment they extend to the EU. CSME countries will, therefore, liberalise goods, services and investment with regard to non-CSME CARICOM countries and to the Dominican Republic at the same rate as to the EU”.
Therefore, from the DR’s standpoint since it has entered a game, it makes sense to help make the rules.
The DR is already an elephant in the CARICOM room that cannot be ignored – its participation in CARIFORUM and the terms of the EPA with the EU make it a big player.

Things have changed appreciably.
The English-speaking countries of CARICOM no longer inhabit an exclusive neighbourhood. They have to concede they are small players, and acknowledge that only cohesive action will preserve their identity, their culture, their language – and a meaningful place in the Caribbean economic space.
It is significant that the EU urged the DR’s inclusion in CARIFORUM and it had to be accepted by CARICOM as a necessary condition of the EPA.

From the EU standpoint, the DR’s inclusion in the EPA made sense since its population of 9.6 million constitutes a market that is almost twice the size of CARICOM, and the EU is interested in larger markets for its goods and services to help preserve and advance the standard of living in its own member states.
Undoubtedly, if Cuba were not subject to a US trade embargo, the EU might also have insisted that Cuba with a population of 11.4 million be part of the EPA.

By any objective analysis, the US embargo of Cuba will be lifted within the next decade.
The burning desire by the private sector in many States in the US to do business with Cuba is pushing change. US companies want a significant piece of the Cuban action which they now see going to European and Canadian companies, and increasingly to China and Russia.

When the embargo is lifted, the Caribbean will be a very different place.
It would be one in which its two largest countries in population terms would be Spanish-speaking and of far greater importance to the global community than the little countries of CARICOM.
It is only the US trade embargo against Cuba that now prevents an integrated relationship between Cuba and the Dominican Republic in the Caribbean that would dwarf CARICOM.

Then, there is Puerto Rico – another island territory in the Caribbean with a population of 3.9 million that is Spanish-speaking.
Even if Puerto Rico does not seek separation from the US, once the embargo on Cuba is lifted, the deepening of economic relations between Puerto Rico, Cuba and the Dominican Republic would make perfect sense.
The Caribbean will then be dominated by these “big three” – with markets and investment opportunities far greater than all the CARICOM countries.

CARICOM countries would delude themselves if they believe that with their individual small markets, high investment costs, high costs of doing business and vulnerabilities both to natural disasters and external economic shocks – such as the current global financial meltdown – they could each operate successfully in the global market place in competition with the “big three”.
CARICOM governments would do well to bolster their economies and their capacity for dealing with their Caribbean neighbours and the international community by urgently completing the arrangements for implementing their own Single Market. They should also swiftly reform the governance of CARICOM which sorely needs overhaul.

Against this background, roles for the media in CARICOM countries begin to emerge.
Umbrella organisations such as the Caribbean Media Corporation (CMC) and the Caribbean Broadcasting Union (CBU) should be geared for: (a) the development of a capability to deliver CARICOM information into the DR, Cuba and Puerto Rico in Spanish; and to deliver information from these countries into CARICOM in English; (b) the development of relations with media in the DR, Cuba and Puerto Rico who would purchase and market information from CARICOM delivered in Spanish; and (c) establishing the mechanics of delivering such information as widely as possible.

Having served on the first Board of Directors of CMC (then known as the Caribbean News Agency) and as President of the Caribbean Broadcasting Union, I am painfully aware that neither of the two institutions have fully fulfilled the objectives for which they were intended – that is to knit the Caribbean peoples into a single community through the spread of information and knowledge.

This is not the fault of the talented journalists and broadcasters who have served the organisations for more than three decades; they have been constrained by the lack of financial resources to do their jobs.
Expecting the financially under-resourced CMC and CBU to take on the task of information flow between English-speaking CARICOM countries and their Spanish-speaking partners – especially now the Dominican Republic – is almost certainly impossible, unless the two organisations get external help.
Such help should come from three sources.

First, the governments of CARICOM and the DR should make a “no-strings attached” subvention to the two organisations to undertake the necessary information flow between their countries.
Second, the EU should be asked to provide the budgetary support which CMC and the CBU would require to undertake the project. After all, the DR is part of CARIFORUM and will in time become a member of CARICOM – largely due to the EU’s insistence.

And, recognising that this project should not be limited to the DR alone, but should include Cuba and Puerto Rico, the third source of financing should be UNESCO which should be approached to provide funding for a communication infrastructure that promotes greater cohesion and understanding among Caribbean peoples who, though geographically close, have been separated politically and economically in service to colonizing nations.
(This is an abridged version of a paper delivered to a UNESCO sponsored Caribbean Media Conference in Grenada on 14th May 2009)
(The writer is a Consultant and former Caribbean diplomat)
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