Member states of the Caribbean Community are being urged to stick to the deadlines for implementation of the CARICOM Single Market and Economy (CSME).
The call came at the 14th meeting of CARICOM’s Council for Trade and Economic Development (COTED), which ended in Guyana on Saturday.
Minister of Foreign Affairs Fred Mitchell and Ambassador to CARICOM A. Leonard Archer, who are attending other meetings in Guyana and are expected home today, represented The Bahamas.
At the sessions, COTED urged member states to accelerate the implementation of key elements of CSME, which calls for, amongst other things, a single currency and the free movement of labour and capital throughout the region.
During the Business Outlook conclave last month, Prime Minister Perry Christie said that The Bahamas would have a “certain position” on the CSME in July.
The 24th Meeting of the Heads of Government of the Caribbean Community is to be held in Jamaica, in July, under the theme, Integration οΎ– our key to prosperity, celebrating 30 years of existence.
It has been the position of The Bahamas, since it became a part of CARICOM, not to sign the protocol establishing CSME, mainly because of the Bahamian currency parity with the U.S. dollar. Another reason is The Bahamas is inundated by illegal immigrants, thus threatening political, social and economic stability.
And, as The Bahamas Government is leaning toward other trading blocs such as the World Trade Organisation and the controversial impending Free Trade Area of the Americas, many in CARICOM feels that The Bahamas is against Caribbean integration.
The COTED meeting recognised that some member states were unable to implement decisions due to limited human resources and agreed on steps to assist those who were affected by this limitation.
The affected member states were requested to identify their difficulties and the technical assistance required to overcome them and indicate to the CARICOM Secretariat and its CSME Unit in Barbados, which has overall responsibility for overseeing implementation of the CSME.
The Secretariat, with the assistance of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), has also established a legal drafting facility in Georgetown, Guyana, led by Duke Pollard, the former legal consultant to the Secretary-General, to assist the Attorneys-General Chambers in the Community with the drafting of the necessary legislation for the implementation of the CSME.
Trinidad and Tobago offered to help other member states by providing technical assistance in areas requested.
On external trade matters, the council took note of the status of negotiations with Costa Rica and Canada toward trade agreements as well as the position with the CARICOM-Venezuela Trade Agreement. In the case of Venezuela, the Joint Council, which was established under the 1992 CARICOM/Venezuela Trade and Investment Agreement, has not met for five years.
The ministers received a report from the Caribbean Regional Negotiating Machinery (RNM) in respect of multilateral negotiations with particular reference to the WTO, the ACP-EU arrangements and the FTAA.
Member states were encouraged to improve their participation in the negotiating process towards the FTAA. A greater presence by member states, the council said would lend support to the CARICOM lead negotiators in the various groups set up under the FTAA process. Member states were urged to submit their offers on market access in the areas of agriculture, services, investment and government procurement.
Within the ACP-EU arrangements, the council took note of the need to begin preparations for negotiations of an economic partnership agreement with the European Union. Those agreements are a feature of the Cotonou Agreement, which governs relations between Europe and the countries of the African Caribbean Pacific Group, which are principally former colonies of the European countries.
With preparations for the WTO negotiations picking up pace prior to a Cancun, Mexico, ministerial meeting this year, the council reminded member states of the urgency to submit negotiating proposals in agriculture and offers and requests with respect to services in order to meet the established deadlines.
By Lindsay Thompson, The Nassau Guardian
