Open and forthright discussions needed on CSME, says Bahamas attorney
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| Published on Thursday, May 10, 2007 |
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NASSAU, Bahamas (BIS): Although there has not been any recent public discussion on The Bahamas joining CARICOM’s Single Market and Economy (CSME), that does not mean it has gone away, Attorney-at-Law and Senior Partner at McKinney, Brancroft and Hughes, Brian Moree said.
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| Senior Partner at McKinney, Bancroft and Hughes, Brian Moree at the Rotary Club of West Nassau. He spoke on the CARICOM Single Market and Economy. (BIS photo: Derek Smith) |
Moree, an outspoken critic of The Bahamas signing onto CSME, said the “political directorate” was “not as forthright and transparent on this issue” as he would have liked them to be “given its importance to our people.”
“I don’t believe that there is a proper dissemination of information,” he said. “I don’t think efforts are being made to make our people know what it is all about, and I think there are some who would even like to pretend it is a dead issue, and for me or other persons to be addressing it is a waste of time.
“But I do not think that is the position at all. I think there are strong forces both internally and externally who are very committed to taking The Bahamas in the direction of the CSME,” Moree told the weekly luncheon of the Rotary Club of West Nassau last Thursday.
Whether one agrees or not, Moree said, The Bahamas must not embark on this project without a full discussion amongst members of the civil society “with quality information so people would know what it is that is trying to be accomplished.”
The CSME is a means to an end, he argued. “The end game is the integration movement and that is how we have to understand the CSME,” he said.
Many leaders of other Caribbean countries support the view that it is “folly to suggest that other members of CARICOM together can effectively create a single market and economy, or indeed The Bahamas can participate as a member of a single market and economy, without achieving a high level of political integration.”
Moree explained that Barbados’ Prime Minister believes that forming the Single Market and Economy “will achieve the highest level of economic union known to mankind.” But this belief, “creates a number of myths,” Moree said.
One myth, he said, is that the CSME is a trade agreement.
“It seeks to achieve what economists call a single economic space where goods, services, capital and labour move freely and seamlessly within that economic space and which country you are from has no relevance to your activities as long as you are in that economic space, because you are all viewed as one,” Moree said.
Another aspect of the CSME would be “the CARICOM passport.”
“The idea is that once this single market and economy is launched and operating, your nationality is subordinated to your regional nationality.
“So it is not very important anymore whether you are a Jamaican, Bahamian, Barbadian or a Trinidadian. What is important is that you are a citizen of CARICOM,” he said.
Five Member States have already introduced a passport that identifies its holder as firstly, a CARICOM national, and secondly a national of the individual state.
“You will have to decide whether this is a good or bad thing, what we simply have to understand is this, the purpose and intent is to absorb the individual states where national identity is subordinated to your regional identity,” Moree said.
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