Dr. Weggoro, Director, Productive and Social Sector of the East African Community Secretariat, and Head of the East African Community delegation;
Representatives from Burundi, Kenya, Rwanda, Tanzania and Uganda;
Colleagues, staff of the CARICOM Secretariat including those of the CSME Unit in Barbados who are participating via Video Conference;
I am honoured to have the opportunity to welcome you today to the CARICOM Secretariat.
I wish first to convey to you the apologies of Secretary-General Carrington, who is unable to be here today as he attending the ACP Summit in Ghana. He has asked me to convey to you very warm and fraternal greetings and to wish a productive and meaningful interaction with our staff.
We are looking forward to the discussions we will have over the next three days of your visit to share with you information on our Caribbean Community integration experience, particularly the progressive movement from the free trade area to common market and subsequently to CSME. We hope also to be able to impart an understanding of the role played by the CARICOM Secretariat in the integration process. We also anticipate learning from you about the East African Community during our exchange.
The CARICOM Secretariat is honoured to share with you our experiences in designing and implementing the CARICOM Single Market and Economy. It has been 35 years since the Treaty of Chaguaramas was signed, establishing the Caribbean Community.
In 1989 in Grand Anse, Grenada, in response to global trade challenges, including preference erosion and declining development assistance, the Heads of Government made a decision to transform the Caribbean Community and Common Market into a single market and economy. In 2001, after several years of review and many amendments, the Revised Treaty of Chaguaramas establishing the Caribbean Community, including the Single Market and Economy, was signed.
The CARICOM Single Market and Economy was launched on 1 January 2006 with six Member States (Jamaica, Barbados, Belize, Guyana, Suriname and Trinidad & Tobago) becoming Single Market compliant. On 3 July 2006, six additional Member States (Antigua and Barbuda, Dominica, Grenada, St. Kitts and Nevis, St. Lucia, and St. Vincent and the Grenadines) became Single Market compliant.
You are no doubt aware of the challenges inherent in pursuing as ambitious an exercise – but a necessary one – as the pooling and streamlining of national markets to form a regional market-space capable of playing its part in a global market place.
I alluded earlier to challenges. Our challenges are undoubtedly quite different from those you confront; however the motivation for the integration of markets the world over remains the same. In a global market place, the relative and absolute size, accessibility, stability, and reliability of one’s market, are the sine qua non of general attractiveness to investors both regional and international.
Ultimately, common markets create investment, dynamise productivity, and strengthen economies capable of adapting to a constantly evolving and unpredictable global economy. These qualities translate into improved standards of living and development that is sustainable. This is the true value-added of a single market.
It is important to note that the Caribbean Community is much more than the CARICOM Single Market and Economy (CSME). It is a community of peoples which also focuses on enhanced functional co-operation including more efficient operation of common services and activities for the benefit of our peoples; accelerated promotion of greater understanding among the peoples of the Community and the advancement of their social, cultural and technological development.
Intensified activities in areas such as health, education, transportation, and telecommunications are also undertaken. In addition, a great deal of emphasis is placed on the expansion of trade and economic relations with third States as well as enhanced co-ordination of Member States’ foreign and economic policies.
In our one-on-one sessions this afternoon we will have the opportunity to discuss in detail how we go about these various pursuits.
In closing, Colleagues, let me, on behalf the Secretary-General and the CARICOM Secretariat, welcome you again. We look forward to fruitful and enlightening discussions, and anticipate that this will be an on-going dialogue to our mutual benefit.