Time to make Caribbean free trade area happen

At the virtual signing into existence of the Caribbean Manufacturers Association (CMA) on Wednesday, Trade Minister Paula Gopee-Scoon called for Caribbean manufacturers to pool their resources for their mutual benefit.

But interconnecting the Caribbean isn't just a job for the private sector.

Ms Gopee-Scoon is correct that there are significant opportunities in the islands of the Caribbean operating as an economic group.

Regional integration was Caricom’s purpose for decades and was an anchor concept in the original West Indies Federation, which collapsed with the withdrawal of Jamaica, prompting Dr Eric Williams to quip, "One from ten leaves nought."

After Guyana and Belize opted out of the fledgling federation, the collapse of that early initiative was imminent. After Jamaica quit, the financial burden fell on Trinidad and Tobago, and Dr Williams wasn't interested in that.

The idea was revisited with the formation of the Caribbean Free Trade Association, Carifta, which stumbled along between 1965 and 1973 before becoming the more politically focused Caricom that we know today.

In the enthusiasm to form a Caribbean community, the original commitment to a Caribbean business model and the creation of a free trade zone was lost.

The Caricom Single Market and Economy was a timid revival of those early ideas, and our trade minister seems to be championing a return to the concepts of Carifta.

But the appetite for developing more effective economic links between our islands has been fickle.

Instead of bold moves and big concepts, key Caribbean leaders of like minds should pursue carefully engineered political arrangements that build on the existing efforts at making the region more of a free trade zone.

There is a need to lead by example and demonstrate the value of collaboration to encourage the region's nation states to recognise the value of working together, despite being separated more by water than by economic circumstance.

At the launch of the CMA, Barbados' Sandra Husbands, Minister in the Ministry of Foreign Trade, noted that in successful free trade areas, between 40-60 per cent of trade happens between participants. In the Caribbean, that figure is a woeful 13 per cent.

The rattling of the supply chain that covid19 has brought to our archipelago and the wider world should encourage deeper contemplation of our regional strengths and weaknesses and a commensurate reevaluation of what the islands of the Caribbean can do for each other and as economic partners.

Caricom should revisit the imperatives that led to Carifta in the economic reality of 2020 and Ms Gopee-Scoon should urge Cabinet to take a leading role in making the CMA a nexus for an overdue advance in regional business co-operation.