(CARICOM Secretariat, Georgetown, Guyana) Heads of Government of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) at their Twenty Sixth Regular Meeting in Saint Lucia reaffirmed that the CARICOM Single Market (CSM) and the Regional Development Fund (RDF) will be in place by December 2005.
These decisions were disclosed by Lead CARICOM Head of Government for the CSME, and Prime Minister of Barbados, the Rt. Hon Owen Arthur, at the end of the first working day of the Heads of Government Meeting on Monday 5 July.
“We will proceed to put in place all of the arrangements across the Region to create a Single Market by the end of this year, subject also to putting in place a special affirmative economic programme for the OECS countries, Belize and Guyana,” said Prime Minister Arthur.
He added that based on their examination of the report compiled by a technical team commissioned by the CARICOM Ministers of Finance to deal with the creation of a Development Fund, CARICOM Heads of Government “have set in train the process by which final decisions relative to the creation of a Regional Development Fund can be created by the end of the year.”
Prime Minister Arthur stressed that the Community will undertake both actions simultaneously to ensure that the Region has a single market that is equitable. He underscored the importance of the Development Fund by noting that the provisions of the Revised Treaty of Chaguaramas recognises that special and differential treatment should be accorded to specific countries, regions and sectors.
“You cannot have a two track approach to integration. We need to bring it together properly. In so doing, we have to make sure that as we create a Single Market, there is space in which countries that start as being unequal can contemplate on sharing on a equitable basis,” said Prime Minister Arthur.
He further stated, “CARICOM cannot be a coalition of unequals. The purpose of a Single Market and Single Economy is to provide us with the instrument for equitable Caribbean development. We can create a Single Market with Member States contributing to the process, simply through our parliaments removing the restrictions.”
In order for the Region to become Single Market ready by December 2005, it has developed a programme to remove approximately 400 restrictions to give effect to the process.
