Caribbean Net News: Regional interest must be priority, says Belize Foreign Minister

GEORGETOWN, Guyana: Free movement of Caribbean nationals and other issues relating to the Caribbean Single Market and Economy (CSME) are foremost on the agenda of the Twenty-Second meeting of the Council for Trade and Economic Development (COTED) which opened this week in Georgetown, Guyana.

The two-day meeting opened with current Chairman, Belize Minister of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade, Eamon Courtenay, calling on participants to put aside national interests and focus more on how benefits can flow through the region.

Several Foreign Ministers were attending the meeting, which also considered a report emanating from the just-concluded meeting of regional transport officials held here on Monday and Tuesday.

"For far too long we have been timid and concerned about domestic and individual national interest and not elevating our community�s interest. Now is the time to take decisions," Courtenay stated.

He added that the time has come for the Council to take tough decisions and to deliver, especially on the Caribbean Single Market (CSM).

"Now is the time for us to take decisions to remove the obstacles that have been on the agenda for far too long; time is against us. Time has come to take decisions to implement what we all commenced many years ago; building the Caribbean Single Market for our people. We cannot reach the Single Economy unless we have a Single Market," Courtenay stated.

The Belize Minister urged that the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) region pursue negotiations with South American countries, noting that unless there is a common consensus within the Council the region will not be able to advance in its external negotiations. While calling for speedy action by regional leaders to implement decisions in the interest of the peoples of the region, Courtenay urged that the region should not compromise its position to meet artificial trade timelines.

"The interest of the region as determined in the Economic Partnership Agreement is above all the most important thing that we are currently engaged in and we should not compromise our position in order to meet an artificial agenda," Courtenay said.

The CSME is being implemented through a number of phases. The first being the CSM which was initially implemented on January 1 with six members and as of July 3, expanded to include 12 members.

Addressing participants, Secretary General of CARICOM, Edwin Carrington, stated that CSME is an achievement of which the region should be justly proud since CARICOM is only the second grouping of countries after the European Union and therefore the first among the countries of the developing world to have taken the integration process this far.

"But we cannot afford to rest here. We must move on to the next necessary step, that is, to put in place the Single Economy, thereby completing the process of establishing a more competitive Caribbean Regional economy," Carrington charged.

He noted that central to the process, is the need to harmonise policies with respect to investment, capital market integration, interest rates, currency convertibility and exchange rates, corporate structures, taxation and the like with special emphasis on the requirements of the Lesser Developed Countries.

Under the Revised Treaty of Chaguaramas, COTED could evaluate the need for technical and financial assistance to disadvantaged countries, regions and sectors, allowing them to access funding through a regional fund, still in its idea stage.

"It falls to your Council, therefore, to ensure that the Fund is established and utilised optimally for the benefit of the Community�We need to ensure greater synergy between our drive towards a single market and economy � that is our internal policy � and our external trade negotiations. Further more, we need to continue to intensify our technical and diplomatic work and solidify our unity in regard to our external trade and negotiations matters," Carrington stated.

Regional officials estimate that the Single Economy is only expected to be fully implemented in 2008 with harmonisation of economic policy and possibly, a single currency.

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