(CARICOM Secretariat, Turkeyen, Greater Georgetown, Guyana) Chairman of CARICOM, Hon. Patrick Manning, Prime Minister of Trinidad and Tobago, told the opening session of the 17th Inter-Sessional Meeting of CARICOM Heads at the Port of Spain Hilton Thursday 9 February, that discussion of “deeper union” among the Member States of the Caribbean Community is inevitable.
Mr. Manning sees it as his responsibility to point out both the possibilities and challenges of such a development. “In my view, deeper union is not an issue that can be swept under the carpet or be placed in the remotest closets of our consciousness. I think that sooner or later, it will bang on the doors of our minds and our meetings,” he said.
Chairman Manning pointed out, “Some of us in the Southern Caribbean have already held discussions to examine the possibility of deeper union on an incremental basis for the sake of our improved collective security and stability. Our increased vulnerability demands that we continue to examine this idea, which will place an even stronger obligation on all to strengthen the solidarity and security of the entire integration movement.”
The CARICOM Chairman observed that “throughout the course of human history, economic integration had always led to the social and cultural fusion of peoples and nations, and in turn has produced the possibility of the more complete union.”
He cited current developments in the European Union where they have traveled “a similar path to one on which we are now engaged, moving from a common market to an economic union and now with a single currency among some member states.” He cautioned however, the need to manage the transition in the CARICOM, in the face of the immediate threats that “will intensify for some of our Member States.”
