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An important bond

Apr 10, 2015 Editorial

Many Caribbean people continue to wonder if the region will ever achieve its most elusive dream. That dream is for some form of overt political expression of unity. It definitely will take more than Heads of Government meetings and other high level fora to establish such an important bond.
CARICOM is both the foundation stone and the driving force behind the regional integration movement. Unfortunately, the community’s progress towards regional integration has been a sluggish crawl, which goes against the grain of recommendations by a long line of acclaimed Caribbean experts in economic strategy and international diplomacy. Such persons have made convincing arguments that the best path to sustainable economic development of the Caribbean is through the systematic economic and political merger of the CARICOM states, the sooner the better.
The rationale for Caribbean integration is clear and precise; indeed, it has become even more compelling today because of the shift in the world economic order towards more international competitiveness through globalisation. This has led to widespread trade liberalization, but also to unprincipled competition and unfair trading practices victimizing the vulnerable economies of poor nations.
CARICOM states face inexorable pressure to open their markets while rich nations and their trading blocs have moved to prop up their local industries by reducing Caribbean imports. Nothing could be clearer than the benefits of CARICOM states merging into a single market and economy. Individually, with their minuscule human and natural resources, they simply cannot match the economies of large scale enjoyed by their competitors in the world market.
Their domestic markets are limited, their unit costs for public administration, social services and economic infrastructure are high because of the small populations served, and there is a severely limited pool of skilled human resources.
Simply put, they lack the skills, infrastructure and funds for development, while at the same time many are saddled with overwhelming foreign debts incurred over decades of unfavourable trade imbalances. These are serious impediments in an increasingly competitive world economy.
Yet, small CARICOM states could significantly reduce the handicap of small size through a greater skills pool and broader resource base. Furthermore, harmonizing the sourcing and distribution of external inputs, unifying civil services and synchronizing critical financial investment, health, education and security services, could consolidate these advantages.
This would present a united CARICOM front against the economic pressures of rich nations and their trading blocs. Moreover, such economic cooperation could be the catalyst for some form of CARICOM political union; perhaps this would be the ultimate expression of the psychological and cultural bonds of the Caribbean people.
Despite these plausible push-factors, there has been noticeable regional disillusionment with the integration process. Some of this has been transparently political in nature; some politicians and political parties in some states evidently see the regional integration movement as a threat to their partisan interests.
Other areas of unease are related to troubling social and economic issues. For example, in some states ethnic minorities who already feel marginalized, like the region’s indigenous peoples, are concerned that in a larger regional body they might drop off the radar altogether.
Additionally, there are serious economic concerns, such as the Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States (OECS) indicating reservations about the benefits the CSME would bring to their nations, in light of the increasingly unfavourable balance in intra-regional trade against the OECS nations.
Nevertheless, CARICOM still has the clout to press for the fulfillment of the elusive dream of full Caribbean economic and political unity and, by extension, true Caribbean freedom. We all hope that in the not too distant future, the various forms of discussion yield results that bring Caribbean unity closer, rather than new sources of discontent.

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