Latest update December 19th, 2024 3:22 AM
Mar 16, 2014 News
By Dwijendra Rooplall
Much has been studied, researched and advanced about regional integration, its benefits, its disadvantages and the ever-evolving dynamics associated with such a profound application.
For the most part regional integration has been a success case, take the European Union as a primary example of what can be achieved when sovereign nations pool their resources, for economic sustainability and international might.
One of the strongest arguments for regional integration which intellectuals posit is the combined Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of small countries that rival some of the most developed nations. Were it not for integration, those small countries would have taken longer to develop because of the economic constraints faced individually.
Take, for example, regional integration in sub-Saharan Africa “ which has 47 small economies, with an average Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of US$4 billion, and a combined GDP equal to that of Belgium or 50% of the GDP of Spain.” (Sourced from Regional Integration-Concepts, Advantages, Disadvantages and Lessons of Experience)
Within the context of the Caribbean and CARICOM (Caribbean Community), regional integration takes on a very important dimension, which is, attaining a collective voice as a single market and economy so that the voices of the many small countries can be conglomerated into one formidable body or bloc and command the respect and economic competitiveness to be influential within the international arena.
“The collective bargaining power argument is especially relevant for the poor and fractioned countries… It may help countries to develop common positions and to bargain as a group rather than on a country by country basis, which would contribute to increased visibility, credibility and even better negotiation outcomes.” (Ibid)
One of the dilemmas associated with regional integration within the Caribbean is that even though significant strides and feats have been achieved, there is no entrenched position that a sovereign nation must relinquish its sovereignty where certain integrative mechanisms are needed to make many pieces into something whole. So in essence, while we have integration, a treaty country can refuse to implement a decision which it deems outside the sovereignty of the individual nation.
It is for this reason that the European Union, even though successful, has not been able fully integrate all of its signatory countries. Something Professor Fraser Cameron in his work ‘The European Union as a Model for Regional Integration’, describes as an “identity crisis.”
What we experience within CARICOM is a hesitation by most countries to relinquish their sovereign status and open their barriers to a governing body which will essential reduce it to a state. In short, we are afraid to test the depths of the water (Integration) and get our feet wet.
This hesitation for the most part is a genuine one, where countries have a vested interest nationally among anything else, but that interest would have to be broadened regionally for integration to truly be successful. The fact that we have taken the necessary steps in relinquishing some of that power and vesting it in a collective body is a sign that we are getting there, but more needs to be done.
An example of such a transition is the Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ). The mere fact that CARICOM countries are actively considering signing on to the CCJ as the final court of arbitration in state matters is a good sign.
The other tenants of regional integration such as reducing barriers, promotion of free trade and the proliferation of collective liberalized polices aimed at competitively uniting signatory countries which, while adopted, has not been fully implemented, something which has stagnated the impetus necessary for CARICOM Single Market and Economy (CSME) to be successful.
There are genuine fears that counties could lose their identity, or that by reducing all barriers to trade and passage the countries that are part of that integration would no longer have mechanisms in place to protect the interest of their nationals. The field would be leveled and however the chips fall so would the outcome be.
So, for example, if a poorer country of the integrated bloc relinquishes its sovereignty then that country might find that in the long run, due to how integrated development is polarized, that country might be the one to benefit the least from integration, something most countries use as the measuring stick for going all out in the integrative approach.
Emilio Pantojas García in his work, ‘Economic integration and Caribbean identity: convergences and divergences’ posits that “one factor that conspires against economic integration is the asymmetry of the economies of the Caribbean Basin. Small island economies, with high rates of industrial concentration depend on a few specialized activities.”
As such he states that “trade liberalization increases the vulnerability of these sectors to international fluctuations and competition…sustainable development for small economies requires not only free trade, but a flow of investment and technical assistance both at the level of production and at the level of managing in an open environment.”
So from an economic perspective there is the fear of inequitable open competition and socio-politically there is the “identity crisis” that individual countries face, something that time might fix provided that signatory countries push for integration and are not afraid of getting their feet wet, since regional integration is the nexus for economic growth and prosperity for small economies within the Caribbean to be globally relevant because of how the world is structured.
What is needed is for signatory countries to develop a political, economic and “cultural identity”
as well as a coherent framework, which according to Garcia, will increase regional integration beyond the Caribbean.
Dec 19, 2024
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