The recently announced 39-per-cent increase (US$21.8 billion, from US$15.7 billion) in Caricom-United States trade over the last three years is every reason why Caricom members, through the Single Market and Economy, should keep the economic integration movement together.
It is vital, too, that the present stalled conditions within the Caribbean Community be immediately unlocked and regional governments and the private sector end decades of indecision, bickering and self-doubt and implement the CSME measures.
The information on the increase in trade between the two trading partners came out of a recent meeting in Guyana between the Caricom Council for Trade and Economic Development (Coted) and the US under the Carib- bean Basin Trade and Partnership Act. And while there was no detailed breakdown on the components of the increased trade package, the assumption must be that one element of the increase would have been in exports from the Caribbean.
Increasing exports is imperative for the survival of Caribbean industry and commerce and for jobs. Having access to the largest and richest hemispheric market is a result of the coming into existence of the regional trade grouping. Frankly, the US and other large producers would hardly be interested in bilateral free trade agreements with individual states.
There would be no incentive for the US, the United Kingdom, Europe to have 15 separate agreements with countries which range in size of market from 10,000 to 2.3 million; it would be more of a bother than a benefit to large countries and trading blocs.
As a Caribbean Community of 15 member states, the region becomes far more attractive for large countries and markets to deal with as a single grouping, with a common external tariff and trade policies which allow for a dramatic reduction in bureaucracy, and all of the other matters business operators have to pursue to make for the quick and easy flow of goods and services across national borders.
On the Caricom side of the trading link is the opportunity that the SME gives to regional governments and the private sector to pool their individual and limited resources to produce and to trade with the rest of the world. Producing Caricom-made products through the combined resources of member states, inclusive of human capital, skill and energy, has long been the essential reason for the existence of the regional integration movement.
Yet, unfortunately, and as admitted by Caricom leaders at their recent intersessional meeting in Suriname, implementation of the CSME continues to be pushed into the future. The newly installed Caricom secretary general, Irwin La Roque, has said that the 2015 date for implementation is "not now achievable."
The international trading and political community is advancing and changing directions on an annual basis-at times, even quicker. Every time a change is made there is need for revision and resetting of economic paradigms. It means as Caricom continues to postpone deadline after deadline, many elements of a CSME which were once essential for participating in international trade become passé.
That means new challenges for Caricom to face-without having had the benefits of the trade arrangements of yesterday. Not only is there need for implementation of US-Caricom agreements, it's also necessary to implement preferential trade agreements under the European Partnership Agreement and with a number of Latin American countries.
In the words of the Trade Minister of Dominica, John Collin McIntyre, who is chair of Coted, Caricom has to begin to fend for itself; and this is not only through production for export, but by increasing intra-regional trade. The lives of Caribbean people depend on trade with the markets of the world.
