The Caribbean Community (CARICOM) Secretariat, yesterday at its annual year end meeting, addressed the way forward for the Caribbean Single Market and Economy (CSME) and the concurrence was that there is room for improvement, particularly with the issuance of CSME certificates.

“The actual mechanics of it, who you must go to, what you must bring with you, what happens when you enter another member state, is being worked on…We need to fine tune it so that each member state does not have a different situation,” Mr. Irwin La Rocque, Assistant Secretary-General, Regional Trade and Economic Integration said.

However, he explained that there has been some “on the ground” work being done with member states.

La Rocque pointed out that while there are laws and regulations in place that direct the issuance of CSME certificates the actual steps are still to be worked out.

To this end, he noted that works are continuing in each member state, where experts have been deployed to assess what is happening and to compile those assessments into one harmonised approach.

“Sometimes we hear many criticisms that there is no movement so we needed to assess what was going on,” he said.

La Rocque stated that the main objective of the appraisal was to determine three things: whether or not member states have complied with the obligations for removal of legal restrictions with respect to the single market and economy; whether or not the substructures of government and other organisations have been developed to the point where they are enabling and facilitating effective participation of CARICOM nationals; and what are the challenges that member states face.

Against this premise, the Assistant Secretary General noted that the findings were positive, since the indications received were that the Single Market is functioning and CARICOM nationals have access to more opportunities.

However, La Rocque acknowledged that there are some challenges, primarily the lack of capacity among member states to make CSME more effective and to allow for opportunities to be taken advantage of fully.

He also stated that these findings were presented and discussed at a Convocation on CSME in Barbados in October.

“The Convocation pointed to some areas that required specific attention,” La Rocque said.

According to him some of the recommendations that came out of that meeting were the need for more focus on public education; a call for the involvement of labour sector representatives; the need for addressing transportation in the Region; and the need for greater assistance to facilitate inter-regional trade in agricultural products.

Efforts in 2010
Additionally, according to the Secretariat, the beginning of 2010 will see the convening of a Working Group Meeting which will review all the developments that have been made so far with regards to free movement.

CSME is an integrated development strategy envisioned at the 10th Meeting of the Conference of Heads of Government of the Caribbean Community which took place in July 1989 in Grand Anse, Grenada.

In the Grande Anse Declaration and Work Programme for the Advancement of the Integration Movement, Heads of Government expressed their determination to work toward establishing a single market and economy.

The Grand Anse Declaration had three key features:
* Deepening economic integration by advancing beyond a common market towards a Single Market and Economy.

* Widening the membership and thereby expanding the economic mass of the Caribbean Community (eg. Suriname and Haiti were admitted as full members in 1995 and 2002 respectively).

* Progressive insertion of the region into the global trading and economic system by strengthening trading links with non-traditional partners.

A precursor to CARICOM and its CSME was the Caribbean Free Trade Agreement, formed in 1965 and dissolved in 1973.

The main objectives of the CSME are, full use of labour (full employment) and full exploitation of the other factors of production (natural resources and capital); competitive production leading to greater variety and quantity of products and services to trade with other countries.

It is expected that these objectives will in turn provide improved standards of living and work and sustained economic development.

The key elements of the Single Market and Economy include:

* Free movement of goods and services – through measures such as eliminating all barriers to intra-regional movement and harmonising standards to ensure acceptability of goods and services traded;

* Right of Establishment – to permit the establishment of CARICOM owned businesses in any Member State without restrictions;

* A Common External Tariff – a rate of duty applied by all Members of the Market to a product imported from a country which is not a member of the market;

* Free circulation – free movement of goods imported from extra regional sources which would require collection of taxes at first point of entry into the Region and the provision for sharing of collected customs revenue;

* Free movement of Capital – through measures such as eliminating foreign exchange controls, convertibility of currencies (or a common currency) and integrated capital market, such as a regional stock exchange;

* A Common trade policy – agreement among the members on matters related to internal and international trade and a coordinated external trade policy negotiated on a joint basis; and

* Free movement of labour – through measures such as removing all obstacles to intra-regional movement of skills, labour and travel, harmonising social services (education, health, etc.), providing for the transfer of social security benefits and establishing common standards and measures for accreditation and equivalency.

Other measures include harmonisation of Laws: such as the harmonisation of company, intellectual property and other laws.

There are also a number of economic, fiscal and monetary measures and policies which are also important to supporting the proper functioning of the CSME.

These include Economic Policy measure: coordinating and converging macro-economic policies and performance, harmonising foreign investment policy and adopting measures to acquire, develop and transfer appropriate technology; Monetary Policy measures: coordinating exchange rate and interest rate policies as well as the commercial banking market; and Fiscal Policy measures: including coordinating indirect taxes and national budget deficits.

The CARICOM Single Market and Economy is intended to benefit the people of the Region by providing more and better opportunities to produce and sell goods and services and to attract investment. It will create one large market among the participating member states.