CARICOM leaders make progress on CSME implementation

Caribbean Community (CARICOM) leaders ended their two-day inter-sessional summit in Belize on Wednesday satisfied they had found new measures to further implement the CARICOM Single Market and Economy (CSME).

In addition, they announced plans to send a delegation to Haiti, and condemned the Russian invasion of Ukraine and called for the withdrawal of troops from the Eastern European country.

Host prime Minister and CARICOM chairman John Briceno told the end-of-summit news conference that the CSME, which allows for the free movement of goods, skills, labour and services across the region, was identified as “a major plank” in the post-COVID-19 recovery process.

“We agreed to revive the CARICOM Economic Recovery and Transformation (CERT) Working Committee, under the guidance of [Barbados] Prime Minister [Mia] Mottley, to serve as a clearinghouse for the many recommendations being tabled and to guide the economic recovery and transformation process in the Community,” he said, adding that representatives of the Caribbean Development Bank, the CARICOM Development Fund and the CARICOM Commission on the Economy have now been included in the Committee.

“We agreed that there was need to focus on greater production integration to help advance the CSME and it was decided that the President of Suriname [Chandrikapersad Santokhi ] would be the lead Head of Government for Industrial Production in the CARICOM quasi-Cabinet of Heads of Government.”

Prime Minister Mottley, who has lead responsibility for CSME, told reporters the protocol amending the CARICOM treaty “was opened this afternoon and a number of us signed”.

“I can’t remember how many of us signed, but . . . this will mean where the threshold of three countries raise an issue, once we can reach an agreement – two-thirds of the Community – we can go ahead without unanimity.

“So that enhanced cooperation is critical towards us being able to progress within the Community without necessarily requiring everybody to move at the same pace, and this is a recognition that there are individual circumstances in a community of sovereign nations that might not allow everybody to move at the same pace,” the Barbadian leader added.

Regarding COVID-19 that has infected and killed thousands of people in the region, Prime Minister Briceno recalled the statement made to the leaders by the Executive Director of Trinidad-based Caribbean Public Health Agency (CARPHA) Dr Joy St John that “we are not yet free of the virus and it is crucial that our vaccination rates be increased”.

“The re-opening of our economies and of our education systems will be greatly assisted by an improvement in the rate of vaccination,” he said. “We have agreed to mount a regional campaign to combat the disinformation that encourages vaccine hesitancy.”

On the issue of Haiti, Briceno said the regional leaders held discussions with that country’s Prime Minister Dr Ariel Henry “so that we could decide specifically how the Community could assist our member state in resolving the difficulties which it is facing”.

“Haiti is one of us and great injustices have happened in that country. Basically what we have done is…we will establish a CARICOM team to be able to visit Haiti with a view to providing support in the facilitation of dialogue.

“There are so many competing groups and it is important for us to be able to move forward in Haiti that we have to bring everyone around the table. We have to support the administration holding credible elections,” he said.

“As CARICOM we want to be able to support the framework for long term development and building democracy through technical assistance,” Briceno added.

He said he expects the CARICOM team, which would also include government ministers, to visit the French-speaking nation within “the next few weeks”.

Briceno said the regional leaders also expressed their “deep concern at the situation in the Ukraine” and that a statement would be issued on that matter.

“The pain and suffering that is being inflicted on the people of Ukraine is unwarranted and a flagrant violation of international law. We continue to urge Russia to cease its attack on the country.

“Just as importantly, we reaffirmed our commitment to the Caribbean Sea as a Zone of Peace, bearing in mind instabilities and threats which we perceive in the region,” the Belize PM said.

Briceno said the CARICOM Heads’ deliberations had been “enriched by our physical presence”, referring to the event being the first regional leaders meeting that had not been held virtually since the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic two years ago.

“One of the highlights of the meeting was the important and stimulating presentation by President [Irfaan] Ali of Guyana who laid out a comprehensive plan for development of the agri-food sector that was embraced by all,” he said, congratulating the Guyanese leader and his team for their “excellent work”.

Prime Minister Mottley said the regional governments had recognised that food and water were becoming the new oil “and that we needed to be able to reduce the volume of imports while at the same time increasing the opportunities for our agricultural sector”.

Noting that the region imports just over US$200 million in poultry a year, she said: “Broadly speaking, we recognise that not only can we be self-sufficient in poultry in the region…we recognise we can also seek to position ourselves by 2025 to be self-sufficient in food stock for poultry whilst still having the capacity to export.”

Mottley said it is not beyond the capacity of the region “to urgently deal with the production of some of the things we are importing, but it requires political will, it requires bringing together the complexity of the issues from crop insurance…to access to financing, to the removal of barriers, to technology and access to the land”.

She also encouraged Caribbean people to eat more locally grown food to help reduce the resources needed to fight non-communicable diseases. (CMC/BT)