(CARICOM Secretariat, Turkeyen, Greater Georgetown, Guyana) The need for the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) to forge ahead with the CARICOM Single Market and Economy (CSME) in order to adequately and collectively respond to the current global financial and economic crisis was underscored yesterday at the official opening of the Twenty-Sixth Meeting of the Council for Trade and Economic Development (COTED), Monday, at Le Meridien Pegasus Hotel.
Senator Maxine McLean, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade of Barbados and Chairperson of the two-day Meeting, said that the crisis demanded that the Region collectively seek ways to manage the challenges “which in many ways are parallel to the worst the world has encountered in modern history”.
In her first official role since being named Minister of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade of Barbados on Saturday, Minister McLean however said that she had confidence in the Region’s resilience.
“While the immediate future appears challenging, I have confidence in the resilience of our Region which, in its 35 years as a Community has weathered external shocks and at the same time forged resolutely ahead with deeper integration,” the Minister said.
Welcoming the delegates, Dr. the Hon Henry Jeffrey, Minister of Foreign Trade and International Cooperation of Guyana, also made reference to the crisis, pointing out that the current global scenario indicated that the successful realization of the CSME must continue to occupy a critical place in trade and integration efforts and that it must be given the highest priority.
“It is estimated that 90 per cent of global trade is financed by trade credits. I cannot say what the statistic is for the Region, but it is not likely to be too dissimilar. The implications of this for trade policy, per se, are obvious but in any case, the crisis has reached the real economy and our Community is being affected by the resultant global recession. As such, regional trade practitioners should be making contribution to the current discourses,” Minister Jeffrey said.
The crisis was also “very much the backdrop for our external trade relations with respect to both the negotiations for implementation of agreements”, the Minister said.
Amb. Irwin LaRocque, Assistant Secretary-General, Trade and Economic Integration, CARICOM Secretariat, noted the challenges and said that now, more than ever before, the Community needed to quicken the pace of building the CSME “since a Single Economy, well structured and managed, would be better able to withstand a global recession than twelve individual economies.”
The CSME is high on the agenda of the two-day COTED Meeting with reference in particular to the Free Movement of Skills, a pillar of the CSME, Contingent Rights, and the status of operations of the CARICOM Development Fund (CDF) and the CARICOM Competition Commission (CCC). External Trade and Economic matters including preparations for the implementation of the Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA) which, in October 2008, was signed between the Caribbean Forum of African Caribbean and Pacific States (CARIFORUM) and the European Commission (EC) are also key agenda items.
