CARICOM

Fresh from the Caribbean Community (Caricom) Heads of Government (C-HOGS) meeting, President David Granger pronounced that the manifest failure of the regional body, founded 45 years ago, is not on account of its structure but its “bureaucracy”. Before rushing to judgement based on his perceptions over the last three years, he would have been better served if he had taken time to study the “Report of the Commission to Review Jamaica’s Relations within Caricom and CARIFORUM frameworks which was issued by that country since March 2017 and to which his colleague from Jamaica referred to on several occasions.
We will highlight that Report’s assessment on the issues raised by President Granger which are covered in Chapter 4, “Analysing Caricom’s performance against the goals and objectives enunciated in the Revised Treaty of Chaguaramas and identifying the causes of the shortcomings.”
The objectives are usefully summarised as set out in Article 6 of the Revised Treaty of Chaguaramas: improved standards of living and work; full employment of labour and other factors of production; accelerated, coordinated and sustained economic development and convergence; expansion of trade and economic relations with third States; enhanced levels of international competitiveness; increased production and productivity; greater effectiveness in dealing with third states, groups of states and multilateral entities; functional cooperation in the provision of common services; functional cooperation for the advancement of social, cultural and technological development, especially in health, education, transportation and telecommunications.
The achievement of these objectives is to be built on the four “Pillars of Integration”: economic integration; foreign policy coordination; human and social development through functional cooperation; and security.”
In assessing the failure of Caricom to achieve those objectives, the Report noted: “At its regular meeting held in Antigua and Barbuda in July 2014, the Heads of Government received and adopted the “Strategic Plan for the Caribbean Community 2015-2019: Repositioning Caricom” that was commissioned in 2012. It is broader in scope and includes most of the tasks identified in the “Strategic Assessment….Slate of Initiatives to Advance the CSME” document, some of the timelines of which had by then lapsed. The Strategic Plan is now in the third of its five year run.”
The Jamaican Report lays the blame squarely on the structure of Caricom which it centres all power with the Heads of Government and which is basically just a talk shop: “The proposals submitted by the Commission on the economy continue to languish for lack of decision or even serious consideration. The immersion in inaction is palpable.
Prime Minister Roosevelt Skerrit of Dominica, addressing the 28th Intersessional Meeting of Heads of Government on February 16, 2017, reiterated his call for “the use of whatever powers at our disposal to work towards the speedy and effective implementation of matters we have long agreed upon”. He noted that many of these matters were still pending and the inability of the relevant bodies to meet and finalise them was proving a hindrance to progress. “We can and must do better,” he added.
Déjà vu! It is a lamentation that has been heard so often and for so long. Barbadian journalist Arthur Gray writing in 1985 made the sardonic observation that: “It is a pity that people can come together at such a high powered level, talk through their problems in a spirit of understanding and then walk away from those meetings without the slightest intention of carrying out the noble actions which they said they would.”
In conclusion, the Report concludes: “The Commission is of the view that the recurring failure of initiatives firmly agreed upon and which are vital to Caricom’s success is due not so much to inertia or the pressure of domestic issues but, rather, the reluctance on the part of member countries to embrace the challenges of the CSME mandate… Caricom leaders should now make a determination as to whether that time has passed, whether a window of opportunity for a single market and economy is still open and whether the appetite for it still exists.”
The fault, dear President Granger, lies in Caricom’s structure – specifically the Heads of Government.