Slow progress of Caricom Single Market bothers Patterson

Friday, November 20, 2009 9:34 PM

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By HG HELPS, Editor-at-Large helpsh@jamaicaobserver.com

Monday, September 07, 2009

Retired Jamaican Prime Minister PJ Patterson is unhappy that the Caribbean Single Market (CSM) is not yet a reality.

Patterson. it would appear that we have just abandoned things

More than three years after Caribbean heads of government held a ceremonial inauguration of the CSM and formal signing of the document for its implementation at the Mona Visitors' Lodge in Kingston, on January 30, 2006, the CSM remains virtually non-existent.

The inauguration and signing would have made the Caribbean Community and Common Market - (Caricom) only the second group to form a single market, the other being the European Union.

It is geared toward bringing the Caribbean region closer together and removing regional hurdles to trade and employment.

The process would have been completed with the implementation of the extended Caribbean Single Market and Economy (CSME), which the heads at the time agreed to have implemented by the end of last year.

Under the CSME, countries would use a single currency and would have a collective economic policy.

"In 2006, we missed the coming into being of the Caricom Single Market. I don't see any sign that any effort is being made to have the single market in place. It is almost business as usual," Patterson told the Observer in an exclusive interview at his St Andrew home last Friday.

"I see no sign of our working towards moving to a single economy, admittedly the more difficult step.
But it would appear that we have just abandoned things," lamented Patterson who, during his tenure as prime minister, developed a reputation as one of the strongest advocates of regional unity.

"Caricom as a region seems not to recognise the need for developing a regional response to the global crisis," he said. "That is not what has happened in most other regional groupings where they have been meeting on an ongoing basis and trying to fashion approaches.

"When we have got bogged down into this question of illegal migrants, it seemed that we were more keen to be engaged in a war of words about it than trying to find solutions. All these issues were discussed at the last summit," he said.

At the signing on January 30, 2006, Patterson, who was serving the last lap of his 14-year reign as prime minister, hailed the occasion, calling it one in which the people of the Caribbean could feel proud, and adding that the single market would strengthen the region's hand in the area of international trade heighten the prospects for employment and economic growth.

Patterson also said then that countries of the region would have to be prepared for the many global challenges that were ahead.

"Formidable challenges still exist as we move boldly forward in the pursuit of closer regional collaboration, within a global economy that is admittedly hostile to the interests of small island developing nations," he said at the signing that had the approval of six countries - Barbados, Jamaica, Guyana, Trinidad & Tobago, Suriname and Belize.

Countries making up the Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States (OECS) agreed to sign by June of that year.

They were Dominica, Grenada, Antigua & Barbuda, St Kitts and Nevis, St Lucia, and St Vincent and the Grenadines.

Caricom honoured Patterson this year for his role in developing the regional group. For him, it was an award that is given priority placement on his already overcrowded trophy stand.

"The honour which was conferred upon me couldn't be done while I was an existing head," he explained. "To have the honour conferred upon me as the sole recipient was a distinguished one."

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