Requiem for the CRNM - JamaicaObserver.com

Thursday, November 05, 2009 12:05 PM

Editorials

Requiem for the CRNM

Wednesday, July 15, 2009

The Caribbean Regional Negotiating Machinery (CRNM) has ceased to exist after operating in various organisational configurations since 1995. Its functions are to be transferred to the Office of Trade Negotiations.

It is our view that what is being passed off as a mere rebranding is a triumph of form over performance.
During its operation, the CRNM completed the Cuba-Caricom trade agreement, the Caricom-Dominican Republic trade agreement and the CARIFORUM-EU Economic Partnership Agreements (the first such agreement).

Among other achievements, it provided the technical work to inform the negotiating positions of the region and led the negotiations at the technical level, earning international encomiums from the World Trade Organisation, the World Bank and bilateral development organisations. It thus became a model for developing country co-operation.

With this proven track record, the question is why have the Caricom governments transferred the functions
of the CRNM to a specialised department of the
Caricom Secretariat?

We'd like to suggest five reasons:
First, the Caricom Heads of Government
allowed themselves to be bullied by a fit of peak of one of their colleagues who retroactively repudiated mandates based on consensus in which he was in full and formal agreement.

Second, rampant institutional rivalry and professional jealousy by institutions that felt the CRNM was executing a function which had and should belong to them.

Third, the accusation that the CRNM was not properly supervised and hence the abolition of the Prime Ministerial Sub-committee on External Negotiations - ironically headed by recent Caricom honoree, Mr P J Patterson. Since he was honoured for his role in external negotiations his conduct is not being questioned. The new arrangements, however, represent less political supervision.

Without doubt, the external trade negotiating function should be an integral part of a well-functioning Caricom Secretariat, but is this the right time, given the undisputed record of failure in the Caricom Single Market and Economy which demonstrates that it is not an effective organisation? Not being part of the "empire" may have been one of the advantages of the CRNM. This was why the Caricom Heads established the CRNM in the first place.

Fourth, we understand that there was a problem of "personalities" and insufficient deference.
Institutions cannot be organised on the basis of personalities. We are not aware of any improper conduct by the outgoing director general, Mr Henry Gill, although there were instances of arrogance by some technical staff. The solution, however, is not to dismantle the CRNM.

Fifth, the CRNM was accused of not reporting as fully as desired, although no instances of failing to report have been documented. The real problem was that it had different perspectives on issues which, in our book, is not necessarily a bad thing.

The end of the CRNM may well be emblematic of a deeper issue than the machinations of politicians and bureaucrats: that Caricom does not intend to negotiate any more trade agreements but concentrate on preserving preferential trade arrangements, ie, CBI and CARIBCAN.

Symptomatic of this policy is the decade-long delay in concluding a new type of trade agreement with Canada.
Such a policy does not require a CRNM but can be handled by a specialised department. So maybe the Heads of Governments of Caricom are telling us this by closing the CRNM.

If you were to grade Derick Latibeaudiere's performance over his 13 years as Bank of Jamaica governor, what grade would he get?
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