CARICOM leaders urged to move urgently on CSME implementation

Antigua and Barbuda Prime Minister Gaston Browne has urged Caribbean Community (CARICOM) countries to move more urgently to implement the CARICOM Single Market and Economy (CSME) that allows for the free movement of goods, skills, labour and services across the region.

“We can no longer afford the luxury of delaying approval of key instruments such as the Financial Services Agreement, investment policy, incentive regimes and the development and regulation of a regional securities market,” Browne said in his virtual address to the opening ceremony of the two-day 33rd Inter-Sessional Summit in Belize.

“The full operationalisation of the CSME is required for the transformation of our economies and to fight for a robust post-coronavirus (COVID-19) recovery. CARICOM needs to be able to shift gears and close its project implementation gaps, to ensure the full operationalisation of the CSME.”

Browne, who was reporting on his six-month tenure as CARICOM chairman, said there were some urgent tasks confronting the integration movement, listing the situation in the French-speaking member state of Haiti among the priorities.

“We need to work with Haiti in helping to resolve the deteriorating political situation in the country and the deepening public anxiety over citizen security,” Browne said, also recalling the assassination of President Jovenel Moise in July last year.

No one has yet been formally charged with his murder even though several people, including former members of the Colombian army, have been detained.

“This was an event almost unheard of in our region, but a tragic reminder that our region is not immune from the forces of instability and criminality swirling around the world,” the Antiguan leader told his regional counterparts.

“Our Community has been engaged with Haiti at the highest political level and has offered to assist in crafting a Haitian-led solution to the present crisis that will garner the support of all the political forces in Haiti, as well as the international community.”

Browne told the summit that citizen security and political legitimacy are what Haiti needs most at this time, and without these vital elements the country’s economic and social prospects will remain grim.

“I am hoping that our Community can be the bridge to the United Nations and other major organisations of the international community, to bring these needed elements to Haiti, as well as a strong measure of humanitarian assistance, rigorously applied,” Browne said.

He said his six-month tenure at the helm of CARICOM had also coincided with the COVID-19 pandemic that has killed and infected thousands of people across the region.

“Many of our member states struggled with the demands of the COVID-19 pandemic that called for the vaccination of a significant portion of our populations in order to achieve herd immunity,” Browne said, noting that obtaining adequate supplies of vaccines on the international market became an issue, and even with the help of the Trinidad-based Caribbean Public Health Agency (CARPHA) and the Pan American Health Organisation (PAHO) and the establishment of the COVAX facility, several member states faced vaccine shortages.

“Vaccine hesitancy also emerged as a significant regional challenge. We remain grateful to those countries of the international community which stepped forward to fill the gap, such as India and the United States.

“With resolute and joint action, I firmly believe that the worst of the COVID-19 pandemic is now behind us and our Community is emerging from the devastating effects of COVID on lives and livelihoods,” Browne said, adding that climate change remains the most significant existential threat facing all of humanity.

“The hopes of people in so many countries around the world for meaningful action on the climate emergency were dashed against the rocks of the obstinate and selfish attitudes of developed countries and large corporations assembled at COP26 in Glasgow, last November.”

“It is not a secret that the results of COP26 fell far short of our expectations, and we continue our advocacy to push the major polluters of the world to reduce emissions, take mitigating actions and contain rising temperatures to within 1.5 per cent of pre-industrial levels,” he added.

Prime Minister Browne said that while there are several items that did not make it on the agenda for this Inter-Sessional Summit, “we must, however, continue to be vigilant in managing the threats of de-risking, the proposed global minimum corporation tax, and sanction-listing of so-called uncooperative jurisdictions by the OECD [Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development] and European Union.

“We must also enhance our negotiations of the EPA [Economic Partnership Agreement] to ensure that it delivers the promised benefits to all its members, including the LDCs [Least Developed Countries] within CARICOM,” Browne said, noting also that the provision of affordable broadband is a public good, as vital as the provision of water or electricity, and should remain a regional priority. (BT/CMC)