Small Commonwealth states to get economic protection

Wednesday, December 17, 2003

BASSETERRE, St. Kitts: The small and inherently vulnerable economies of small states in the Commonwealth are expected to be protected from the vagaries of international trade and finance.

According to a communiqué from deliberations of heads of government who met in Abuja, Nigeria, last week, the Commonwealth's protectionist policy towards smaller members of the organisation will take the form of technical assistance through advocacy, policy advise and support for national and regional capacity building. 

It was resolved that small countries making up the Commonwealth such as St. Kitts and Nevis, The Gambia, Mauritius, Botswana, Tuvalu and Barbados should benefit from such a "protectionist package" from the organisation, which already devotes sixty percent of its technical assistance budget to such small countries.

The Commonwealth Secretariat said that it was "very much alive" to threats posed on small economies by globalisation and was devising such a comprehensive plan to arrest what it called the inimical aftermaths of internationalised trade on them.

"Thirty two of the Commonwealth's 54 members have populations of less than 1.5 million people and that explains how vulnerable the economies of such small states are to the ravages of international trade," the Commonwealth's Deputy Secretary General, William Cox is quoted by The Independent of the Gambia.

According to him, new trade regulations such as that outlined by the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) are having a tellingly devastating effect on small countries particularly belonging to the Commonwealth.

Managing to sound remarkably upbeat amidst overriding pessimism for small Commonwealth economies, which are at the mercy of the gargantuan forces of global trade and finance, Mr. Cox assuredly pointed out: "We have put everything in place to work out ways of handling the trade-related aspects of globalisation as it affects small states belonging to the Commonwealth. These small states cannot on their own withstand international pressure especially in the financial sector."

Mr. Cox's optimism is guarded in view of the fact that the march to globalisation in recent years has marginalised small countries, thus increasing their vulnerability. He said this is just part of a series of steps to be embarked upon by the organisation to draw "undivided" global attention to the plight of small states.

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