Member States of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) that are experiencing setbacks in being Single Market ready by December 2005 need to speak up now so as to receive resources necessary to assist them in meeting the deadline.
This was the word from CARICOM Secretary-General His Excellency Edwin Carrington, as he addressed a Media Clinic in Saint Lucia recently, where he outlined aspects of the agenda for the upcoming meeting of the Conference of Heads of Government of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) to be held in Saint Lucia from the 3rd to the 6th of July.
Mr. Carrington said while there was no indication that Member States were having a difficult time in meeting the deadline, there was no question of an extension of time for States to become CSME ready by the end of the year.
“I just don’t think it’s on. It’s not in our interest to delay,” he said. “Every day we delay getting there, we enhance the danger. We need to get there as quickly as possible so as to get ourselves ready to deal with that avalanche of challenge that is coming, and believe me, it’s coming,” Mr. Carrington pointed out.
He noted that Jamaica, Barbados and Trinidad and Tobago were already CSME ready and explained that the Community was counting on all Member States being ready by the end of December.
“So those who are having particular difficulties need to signal their distress as soon as possible in order that they can be helped,” he affirmed.
He said it was important to have the CSME in place, “because from a platform where we have a single economic space and agreed policies, we are better able to respond to the oncoming challenges that will be posed by the WTO and the FTAA.”
The CARICOM Secretary-General pointed out, “If we do face these challenges as individual states, I don’t think we have a ghost of a chance. So to me, building the CSME is the precondition for being able to respond adequately to those issues posed by the new trading regimes.”
Foreign Affairs Minister Fred Mitchell has announced that he will be representing Prime Minister Perry Christie at the St. Lucia meeting.
During that time, he intends to make clear the government’s decision not to sign the Revised Treaty of Chaguaramas, which establishes the CSME.
In making the recent announcement during his contribution to the budget debate in the House of Assembly that the government does not plan to sign the Treaty anytime soon,
Minister Mitchell achieved what he had intended, and that is to lower the debate on CSME, which up to that point was at a boil.
“The Bahamas has not signed the Revised Treaty of Chaguaramas and cannot now sign in these present circumstances,” he said at the time. “What we are now engaged in is a programme of public education and discussion on the issue.”
Bahamas High Commissioner to CARICOM A. Leonard Archer recently explained to The Bahama Journal that while the signatures of all states are needed to activate the regional agreement, there is a provision in the Treaty that prevents any particular state from holding up the process.
Mr. Archer said earlier this week that even though The Bahamas will not sign on to CSME in the near term, its presence at the upcoming meeting is still considered vital.
From: The Bahama Journal
