Caribbean Community (CARICOM) leaders will discuss a draft protocol aimed at pushing forward the further implementation of the CARICOM Single Market and Economy (CSME) during their two-day Inter-sessional summit that gets underway in Belize on Tuesday.
CARICOM Secretary-General Dr Carla Barnett, speaking at a news conference ahead of the event, told reporters that the protocol will be discussed “and we will see if there are other things that need to be done, as the legal draftspersons would say, to perfect it”.
“But it is at the stage where we have a draft protocol for consideration. We have not had that before. So, for me, that we have managed to reach that stage is a good thing,” she added.
The CSME is an arrangement among the 15 CARICOM member states for the creation of a single enlarged economic space through the removal of restrictions, resulting in the free movement of goods, services, persons, capital and technology.
The decision, in 1989, to establish the CSME was regarded as a move to deepen the integration movement to better respond to the challenges and opportunities presented by globalisation. However, there have been varying degrees of implementation over the years and Prime Minister Mia Mottley, who has lead responsibility for the CSME within the quasi-CARICOM Cabinet, is expected to table the draft protocol during the two-day meeting.
“She has been meeting within that committee and with the CARICOM Secretariat’s staff to work through what needs to be done to accelerate implementation. One of the important things that will be on the table at this meeting is a protocol on the enhanced cooperation among member states that will allow sub-groups of member states to work together closely so that we do not remain bound by the current understanding that we all have to agree to every single step before we make a single step,” Barnett explained.
“That is one of the issues that kept back the forward movement in the Community. The growing feeling is that if there can be like minds among a subset of countries and they want to move forward on a particular aspect of the Single Market and Economy, they ought to be able to move forward together and then the remainder who may not be ready at the same time can join when they are able to.
“So, this protocol would allow that forward movement and that, I think, is the most important thing that will be addressed at this meeting in addition to taking stock as to where we are,” Barnett added.
She told reporters that the regional leaders will also be discussing the situation in Haiti. Prime Minister Dr. Ariel Henry is expected to attend what will be the first in-person meeting of CARICOM leaders since the COVID-19 pandemic that began two years ago made meetings a virtual affair.
Henry became head of the government in the French-speaking CARICOM country after President Jovenel Moise was assassinated at his private residence on July 7, 2021. The country was hit by an earthquake that killed hundreds of people a month later, in addition to having to deal with the ongoing spate of kidnappings and other criminal activities.
“Haiti is a member of the Community so it is a discussion within family, if I can put it that way. And so, within family you know we have difficult conversations, we try to be helpful, try to do what is right, we try to stand by the rules of the household. So we will be having discussions with Haiti in which we will be talking about how CARICOM can be more helpful. CARICOM has offered good office to Haiti from time to time to be able to offer assistance for strengthening of administration, for strengthening electoral processes, for training of security forces….
“We feel that this time we will continue to have those things on the table but we also feel that there is a particular role that we need to play, which is to encourage and in some ways lead the international community towards the consideration of the long-term development plan for Haiti, because a lot of the conversations tend to be around the security issues and the crime issues and that is sometimes delaying fundamental development issues,” the Secretary-General added.
Barnett said the regional leaders will also be discussing the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic with a focus on economic recovery, the ongoing situation in Ukraine where Russian forces have invaded the Eastern European country, and preparing for the meeting with the leaders of the Central American Integration System (SICA) on Thursday, 11 years after the previous summit was held.
“The reality is that we have not made as much progress as we would have wanted. The two integration movements set out a plan of action in 2011 that we are pursuing. The expectation is that this meeting of CARICOM and SICA …will see a reinvigoration of the plan of action.
“There is an undertaking that the revised updated plan of action will be agreed. There have been intense discussions between CARICOM and SICA over the last few months and so we are expecting that there will be a re-invigorating point in time,” she said, noting that Belize, which holds the chairmanship of CARICOM, is also the only CARICOM member state belonging to both integration movements.
The CARICOM-SICA summit is expected to be attended by United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, whom Barnett said is still likely to attend in person despite the ongoing Ukraine-Russia situation.
Argentina’s President Alberto Fernández will attend the summit virtually. (BT/CMC)
