For those with a deeper vision of Caribbean integration and the potential efficacy of conglomeration in this region, today marks an important milestone in this process.

This afternoon, at the University of the West Indies, Mona campus, the leaders of six member states of the Caribbean Community (Caricom) - Jamaica, Barbados, Belize, Guyana, Suriname and Trinidad and Tobago - will formally affix their signatures to a declaration heralding the launch of the Caricom Single Market, which is to be the first step towards creating a seamless regional market and economy. Six other countries of Caricom's 15 member states are expected to come onboard by the end of March.

We are glad that those Caricom states that believe themselves substantially prepared for the single market have decided to go ahead, rather than wait for others to catch up. The region has for too long wasted opportunities because of political timidity that slowed a deeper engagement.

But, as we have so many times insisted in these columns, there is an unassailable and essential logic to Caribbean integration. The product of Caricom, as it has already proved in the broad political and economic sphere, is greater than the sum of its individual parts.

In this new, globalised world, small states like those which now seek to create a single market cannot expect, individually, to fend off the negative forces in a hostile environment. Even in conglomeration, the region cannot be sure of success. What is certain is that by acting together Caricom states have a better chance at protecting their interests, as has been proven at the World Trade Organisation, and in other fora.

The single market, and subsequently a single regional economy, provides an opportunity to translate the achievements of the political front to business and economy by providing Caribbean companies with a wider canvas on which to operate. Of course, the critics do argue that even in the context of a single market, Caricom represents a small, relatively poor market.

And so it does. The fact, though, is that the individual markets, on their own, are minuscule.

This wider space, with similar rules and the capacity for the free movement of capital and, in some areas, labour, enhances the ability of firms to hone their competitive positions in the domestic and international marketplace.

Moreover, this wider market raises the possibility for production sharing, for capital to find its way to new opportunities and for greater efficiency in the labour market. Unfortunately, the potential beneficiaries of these opportunities have not yet begun to rigorously examine what is on offer.

Rather, it is the wont of the anti-regionalists to highlight the perceived shortcomings, attempting to use weaknesses and failures of domestic economic policy as the argument against involvement in the single market.

These arguments, however, fail on the supposition that by staying out of the Caricom Single Market a country's policy position will automatically improve, and that the country's balance of trade and current account situation will, by themselves, improve.

Additionally, the argument fails to make the point that while a country may have a deficit in the trade of goods with single market partners, the circumstances of the market may improve its prospects for a surplus in services.

The bottom line is that while we do not believe that grasping the full potential of the single market will be easy, it is critical to the region's survival.

Not only should the mechanisms be put in place to urgently bring the other states onboard, but there is need for aggressive action to move the process to a genuine single economy. People must be told frankly what this will entail.

Trousers in Denim

Cream of the 'Crop'

Cheeky's World