…CARICOM SG tells COTED

CARICOM Secretary-General, Ambassador Irwin LaRocque, challenged Member States to stick to the plan for the effective implementation of the CARICOM Single Market and Economy (CSME), when he opened the Forty-Eighth Regular Meeting of Council for Trade and Economic Development (COTED) at the Guyana Marriott on Monday.

Intra-regional trade is among critical areas CSME addresses within the ‘Free Movement of Goods and Services’ framework. However, implementation leaves much to be desired by the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) in this regard.

In his address, Ambassador LaRocque reminded the region’s Foreign Ministers and Trade officials that, in little over two months, the CARICOM Heads of Government are scheduled to receive the report card, based on the implementation plan agreed upon, during the last Heads of Government Meeting, and subsequent meetings.

“Member States at that time, recommitted fully, and I stress fully, to the effective implementation of the CSME and agreed to the timelines – short, medium and long term, set out in the plan. This meeting presents an opportunity to review the actions taken by member states to meet the timelines,” Ambassador LaRocque said as he warned against changing the goal post.

Shifting target
“Implementation cannot be a shifting target. We cannot come to meetings, after meeting, after meeting, agreed on a plan, the plan is now published on our website for all to see and we are not making progress… So I repeat implementation cannot be a shifting target,” he warned.

The CARICOM Secretary-General challenged the Trade Ministers and Regional Officials to work with their Heads of Government to implement the agreed measures, emphasizing that it is important for the people of the region to experience the benefits of the Single Market.
“An urgency to complete the agreed measures and make the CSME a live reality for our citizens, has been the hallmark of the recent discussions among our Heads of Government. As the Council tasked under the Revised Treaty to ‘promote the development and oversee the operation of the CSME’ you have a pivotal role to play in ensuring that we accomplish the goals in that regard,” Ambassador LaRocque told the regional officials.

He also underscored the importance of reviewing the Common External Tariff (CET), which also forms an important part of the Free Movement of Goods and Services’ framework within the Single Market regime. Ambassador LaRocque also underlined the importance of CARICOM Development Fund (CDF) – a fund designed to provide financial or technical assistance to disadvantaged countries, regions and sectors in the Community.
COTED Chair, Sandra Husbands, Minister in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade of Barbados, also challenged the Foreign Ministers and their countries to take actions that would see the people of the region benefiting significantly in the area of free movement – free movement of people, goods, and services.

Husbands said the recent advancements within the CSME framework demonstrate a full commitment by Member States to the regional integration project. However, she too underscored the importance of strategically implementing the plan as a unified union.
“We need to take care of certain elements that are important to our people”, she said. According to Husbands, her heart is fully positioned to advance the movement, explaining that the future of the region’s children and its economy depend on CARICOM advancing its work be it in agriculture, health or education.

The Barbadian Minister of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade said it is critical to lay a foundation for the future generations to build on, warning that failure to do such can result in a collapse of the CMSE and even the Caribbean Community.

“All of these things require us to do our very best work so that we lay a foundation that for the next generation to advance this experiment. My greatest fair, however, is that if this generation does not do its best in advancing our interest in our CARICOM experiment that another generation would come and view what we failed to do and conclude that this experiment was not worth it and dismantle it. Should they arrive at that position, then we would see the dismantling of all the work that has been done by many persons for many years in seeking to bring CARICOM together and bring life to the CSME,” she warned the officials.

Husbands said collective thinking, identification of common interests and unity are necessary to achieve integration goals. She therefore urged the Ministers to view their work under the umbrella of COTED, not from the perspective of individual Member States, but rather what was best for common interest of the Region. Minister Husbands added that this was necessary to create the level of economic growth and development and the kind of society that was just, fair and prosperous.

The Trade Ministers, during the two-day meeting, will also address issues relating to External Economic and Trade Relations including its updated position on the future trade relations with the United Kingdom – post Brexit; implementation of the Trade Facilitation Agreement and the roll out of work on the World Trade Organisation (WTO) issues. The meeting of Council for Trade and Economic Development (COTED) comes to an end today.