An in-depth focus on Caribbean issues
MIXED VIEWS ON MOVING REGIONAL INTEGRATION MOVEMENT FORWARD
This month’s meeting of Caribbean leaders in Suriname addressed some of the recurring thorny issues afflicting the regional integration movement without moving much of its agenda forward. Despite this, one CARICOM leader who is cautiously optimistic that there will be progress on several fronts in the near future is Guyana’s President Donald Ramotar who was attending his first ever CARICOM Summit.
Ramotar believes deepening and widening the integration movement should take place simultaneously. He advocates moving ahead with the CARICOM Single Market, addressing current deficiencies, while at the same time making aggressive approaches to tap into the vast and potentially lucrative South American markets.
“Pursuing South American markets such as Brazil, Chile and Argentina will broaden the base of CARICOM economies and help them to be more resilient to the effects of the global financial crisis.We can continue to pursue traditional markets as well as take advantage of these new opportunities,” he advised.
Ramotar told me he fully shares the views of current CARICOM Chairman, Suriname’s Prime Minister Desi Bouterse, that the region has sufficient resources to enable it to not just survive but to flourish. One of the strategies being touted by Bouterse is for the Caribbean private sector to invest more in projects and joint ventures in CARICOM Member States.
This is not an entirely new concept. In the 1980’s, there was a drive towards the establishment of a CARICOM Enterprise Regime (CER) but this was no longer pursued once the Single Market was established.
The Guyanese President acknowledged that freedom of movement and contingent rights for nationals relocating to another CARICOM country are major impediments to the CARICOM Single market.
On the issue of hassle-free travel for both relocating and holidays, Ramotar reported that the situation has improved for Guyanese travellers to places like Barbados because the Guyana Ministries of Foreign Affairs and Home Affairs have been pro-active in this area.“We can’t have genuine integration unless this cardinal issue is resolved. I get a sense of growing appreciation of this among CARICOM leaders and I am optimistic that things will get better in the near future.”
He agrees that training and sensitising immigration officers across the region is critical if there is to be significant progress in this area.
Ramotar describes as challenging the crime situation and upsurge in illegal weapons in Member States. He says a lot of coordination among the region’s police forces in terms of intelligence sharing is currently taking place. However, the region needs assistance from western countries that are the markets for the drugs shipped through the Caribbean by the Mexican and Colombian drug cartels. “We need two way sharing of information and help with areas such as training. We have no problem working with the U.S. DEA (Drug Enforcement Agency).”
The Guyanese President disclosed that, at the recent Suriname meeting, discussions were held between security services in Guyana and Suriname on joint crime fighting strategies including intelligence sharing and ways to stamp out piracy.
On one of the most prominent agenda items at the Suriname meeting, the regional cricket controversy, Ramotar said Guyana made its case in a strong way and he is hopeful it will have an impact when the Prime Ministerial sub-committee on cricket deals with this issue.
International Relations Specialist Dr. Anthony Peter Gonzales believes that the cricket issue overshadowed much more important issues at the Suriname meeting, which he feels produced “nothing of substance and only massaged the real issues”.
Gonzales, currently serving as Director of the Institute of International Relations at the Trinidad campus of the University of the West Indies (UWI), feels Caribbean leaders missed the boat in terms of coming to grips with the governance dilemma and crime and security issues.
In addition, the impact of the global financial crisis on the region was a serious omission from the agenda.
Gonzales, one of the consultants who contributed to the work of the West Indian Commission that reviewed the regional integration movement, said announcing the Secretariat will develop a five-year Strategic Plan is puzzling as this is the norm for any organization.
According to him, the Heads of Government have had ample time to make a concrete decision on new structures to better facilitate the implementation of decisions. There has been no clarification of whether proposal announcement at the 2011 CARICOM Summit for a Committee of CARICOM Ambassadors is still one of the options being pursued.
“As far as the CARICOM Secretariat is concerned, this is a separate issue.

There have been reports done that conclude that the Secretariat had grown too big, lacked focus and had a problem prioritising.  The move now should be to have the Secretariat do fewer things and do them well.”

Gonzales, an International Trade and Economics Specialist, expressed surprise that the Suriname meeting did not address the debt crisis, which several CARICOM countries are facing.“What they ought to be focusing on is how to get better terms and conditions from the IMF and how they can access resources without the stringent conditionalities of the past.”
He agrees with St. Vincent and the Grenadines Prime Minister Ralph Gonsalves that for CARICOM to move forward, Trinidad and Tobago and Jamaica need to be more engaged in integration initiatives. “There seems to be no political will to give impetus to many of the CARICOM initiatives and that’s where the impasse is.”
Gonzales noted that the former Patrick Manning administration in Trinidad had an elaborate and well- structured programme to deal with drugs and guns interdiction. “We are in a very dynamic situation with the Zetas from Mexico, who have been driven out of The Dominican Republic and Haiti, targeting in a very sophisticated way, certain CARICOM countries and yet in terms of a regional strategy we seem to be at a standstill.”
Gonzales feels CARICOM countries need, among other things, to have larger vessels, equipped with radar systems and backed up by helicopters, patrolling the Caribbean waters on a permanent basis.
The dilemma that some Governments have is whether to plough limited financial resources into beefing up their own police and security forces or divert some of this money towards regional security operations.
( Sandra Ann Baptiste is a Business Consultant and Specialist in Caribbean Affairs).