Today’s Caricom ‘Special Session’…
ON THE heels of last week’s 49th Summit of leaders of the Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States (OECS) in Tortola, British Virgin Islands, Heads of Government of the wider Caribbean Community will meet today for a one-day ‘special session’ in Port-of-Spain, Trinidad and Tobago.

Arrangements being advanced for the creation of an OECS Economic Union by year end, and for which a series of public consultations are taking place in that sub-region of CARICOM, was one of the agenda issues.

The related matter of engagement with Trinidad and Tobago for its involvement in an economic union with the OECS by 2011, without prejudice to commitments to CARICOM’s single market and, ultimately, single economy, was also discussed.

It’s of significance to note that ahead of the OECS Summit in Tortola, Governor of the Eastern Caribbean Central Bank, Sir Dwight Venner, took a verbal swipe at CARICOM’s lacklustre approach to deepening economic integration, in comparison to the strides being made by the OECS sub-region. Venner heads the OECS Task Force on economic union.

One working session of the three-day OECS summit that concluded on Friday was scheduled for an encounter with the Prime Minister of Barbados, David Thompson.

The range of issues would have included the OECS’ trade and economic relations with the wider Community, with which Barbados enjoys a decisive advantage, and also to have a better understanding on matters relating to freedom of movement and managed migration.

One notable absentee for the meeting was Vincentian Prime Minister, Ralph Gonsalves, who had earlier warned of a threat to CARICOM’s disintegration as a consequence of negative positions, as he sees it, being adopted against Community nationals in some jurisdictions.

Gonsalves did not identify any country, but his warning statement came in the wake of Prime Minister Thompson’s declaration of deportation of all illegal CARICOM nationals who fail to comply with a six-month amnesty, ending at year end.

Task Force Report
This is an issue also set to emerge during today’s special summit of CARICOM leaders in Port-of-Spain, which was called to deal specifically with challenges and responses to the global financial and economic crisis. A draft report from the Task Force, established last January by CARICOM’s Council for Finance and Planning (COFAP), has now been submitted by the President of the Caribbean Development Bank, Dr Compton Bourne.

It could not, however, be confirmed whether Heads of Government would have had the opportunity to benefit from the Task Force’s assessment of the implications of the global crisis for this region ahead of their participation in today’s ‘special summit’ in Port-of-Spain, that has resulted from an initiative by host Prime Minister, Patrick Manning.

Nor has it been disclosed if any other special working document was requested to guide informed discussions on the urgent need for collective regional approaches to deal with the global crisis that surfaced some seven months ago.

Now, with just over five weeks prior to a scheduled annual Heads of Government Conference in Guyana, CARICOM leaders will be meeting, for the first time, to deal specifically with regional responses to the global financial and economic crisis.

The assessment by the Task Force, under the chairmanship of President of the Caribbean Development Bank, Dr Compton Bourne, was mandated by CARICOM’s Council for Finance and Planning when it met for a regular session in Barbados last January 29.

It may now be of academic interest why the Council was not forthcoming in ensuring an early report from the Bourne-led Task Force on the implications for this region of the global crisis.

Or, for that matter why, since their March Inter-Sessional Meeting in Belize — at which they alluded to the spreading global crisis, CARICOM leaders themselves have failed to treat, as an urgent priority, the ‘special session’ they have scheduled for today in Port-of-Spain?

Our CARICOM leaders are perceived as being reluctant to make effective use of available skills, talents and experiences across our region to enhance regional approaches to regional problems, and to do so when it really matters.

Mobile Think-Tank
Currently, they have to contend with the prevailing cynicism about special ‘task forces’ or ‘technical working groups’, which are often perceived as devices to delay what needs to be done with urgency.

Worse, when they receive the reports from either a mandated ‘task force’, or ‘working group’, CARICOM leaders tend to sit on their hands when not throwing up excuses to justify lack of implementation.

A classic example of this politics of frustration is the collective failure of the Community’s leaders to move in any decisive manner to deal with the perceived crying need for a new governance architecture to effectively service the now 36-year-old regional economic integration movement.

In the thinking of strong supporters of CARICOM, not only should the leaders move, collectively, with haste to introduce a new and enlightened governance system, but they should also recognise the need, now more than ever, to give life to an idea that was articulated by the late Prime Minister of Barbados, Errol Barrow — one of the architects of CARICOM.

It is the creation of a ‘Regional Mobile Think-Tank’, comprising some of the finest Caribbean minds (wherever located), whose services will be mobilised, as required, and costs shared by the region’s governments and private sector.

The chosen experts, it was felt, could be seconded by their employers for specific assignments/missions and periods, and reports made directly to Heads of Government for necessary action.

This is an idea that CARICOM leaders could possibly consider at their ‘special session’ today in Port-of-Spain. As I reported some years ago, the Mobile Think-Tank idea was embraced at the time by that recognised elder statesman among West Indian economists, the iconic William Demas.

For now, we await the new ideas and decisions to emerge from today’s ‘special summit’ — less than six weeks ahead of the 30th annual Heads of Government Conference in Guyana.