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Volume No. 1 Issue No. 78 - Thursday March 02, 2006 |
Questions our readers ask: The Caribbean Single Market and Economy (CSME)
 The Dominican.net Newsdesk
In recent weeks, the Caricom Single Market and Economy (CSME), and more specifically the Caricom Single Market (CSM), which was launched in January 2006, has received considerable public attention. While the Single Market and Economy is not to be seen as a panacea for the region's challenges in the current market arena, the CSME, when fully implemented by December 31, 2008, is expected to offer a protective hedge against the full force of the global market winds.
Does the introduction of the CSME signal a single Caribbean Union?
The Community's Single Market and Economy would operate as "a unit of sovereign states, not as a single union as the European Union. The EU model has centralised political institutions such as the European Commission and the European Parliament, but Caricom countries will maintain their sovereignty.
Will there be an eventual political integration?
No, at least for the time being, there is no intended political integration. However, the Caricom Community's Finance Ministers constituting the Council for Finance and Planning (COFAP), have been asked to consider Caricom member states when designing and implementing their respective countries' macro economic policies.
How will the CSME operate in principal?
While the CSM will maintain individual state sovereignty, member states will have specific portfolio assignments. Barbados' portfolio, for example, is the CSME, including the Monetary Union, while Antigua and Barbuda is responsible for Services, including Information Technology and Telecommunications. For Belize, it is Sustainable Development, including Environment and Disaster Management and Water, while Dominica is responsible for Labour, including Intra-Community Movement of Skills.
Grenada has the portfolio of Science and Technology; Guyana, Agriculture and Food Security; Jamaica, External Trade Negotiations; St Kitts and Nevis, Health, including HIV/AIDS and Human Resource Development; St Lucia, Justice and Governance; and St Vincent and the Grenadines, Bananas and Air Transport. For Suriname, its portfolio responsibility is that of Community Development and Cultural Co-operation, including Culture, Gender, Youth and Sport, and Trinidad and Tobago has Security as this relates to Drugs and Illicit Arms, and Energy.
How is the arrangement expected to benefit member countries?
Aside from regional political stability and prime location, the Caribbean countries participating in the CSM and CSME also have a mix of resources, services and general market strengths to trade among each other. These include: tourism, oil and natural gas, bauxite, marine resources and fertile agricultural land. Tourism seems to be the strength shared by all.
Antigua and Barbuda, for example, is efficient in rum and cotton production and produces light assembly goods and agricultural products. The strengths that Barbados has are tourism and offshore financial services. That country also has small oil, manufacturing, sugar and agricultural industries. For Belize, most of its income comes from agricultural crops such as maize, rice, citrus, bananas and sugar.
As it relates to tourism, the situation in Dominica is different. The tourism it enjoys is eco-tourism, mainly because of its rain forest and volcanic scenery. The manufacture of soap and coconut oil is second to that country's eco-tourism offer. For Grenada, the main industries are agriculture and light manufacturing and for Guyana it is mining (gold and diamond), and agriculture (sugar, rice, fish and shrimp).
Sugar, cotton and coconuts are the popularly exported goods from St Kitts and Nevis, whilst for Suriname it is minerals such as bauxite, gold, petroleum and kaolin, rice, palm oil, bananas and prawns. St Lucia exports goods that are produced through light manufacturing and agriculture.
The same goes for St Vincent and the Grenadines, whose agricultural exports include arrowroot and ground provisions. Bauxite mining and agriculture, particularly products such as coffee, spices, hot peppers, cocoa, bananas, citrus and sugar are popular Jamaican exports.
Reggae music is also another prized industry in the country. Aside from manufacturing, the major economic activities of the twin island Republic of Trinidad and Tobago are centered around its oil and natural gas resource. They produce and export petroleum and petroleum products, ammonia products, methanol, urea and natural gases.
Member countries are expected to benefit by increasing the volume of trade in the goods and services for which they have a natural advantage.
Will there be a single passport for all countries?
It is expected that by 2008 there will be one Caricom passport. Five member states have already introduced a passport that identifies its holder as firstly a Caricom national and secondly a national of the individual state. These are Suriname, St Kitts and Nevis, Dominica, St Vincent and the Grenadines and Antigua and Barbuda. Trinidad and Tobago and Guyana have indicated that by July they would have introduced the Caricom passport.
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