By: Kimberly Ramkhalawan
September 6, 2022
Words of Owen Arthur reflected upon in second annual memorial lecture.
How would the Owen Arthur view the post COVID economic advancement and where CARICOM is at this junction, was the focus of UWI’s 2nd Distinguished Owen S. Arthur Memorial Lecture, titled “The Future of CARICOM: Charting a Vision for the Region’s Economic Advancement”.
Leading the discussion was Dr Carla Barnett, CARICOM Secretary General and gave insight into how the former Barbados Prime Minister took on the challenge to chart the course on the CARICOM Single Market Economy, CSME, within the framework of the revised Treaty of Chaguaramas.
Dr Barnett in describing Arthur as a regionalist, and one for integration said his idea of CSME was one that must be complemented with national action, given that that CARICOM is really a union of Sovereign nations, while the revised treaty is a flexible instrument which allows for the redesign of elements while retaining the foundation principles. She added that according to his statements, the CSME was not intended to appear in one time or another as a finished or finite entity with a grand finale complete with fireworks at the end, but rather constantly evolving. This she says did not mean that implementation of it should be slow, and ‘no fifth wheel to the coach, but be part of our lived reality, integral to production processes, employment creation, social stability and wealth generation in the community’.
With this she said her lecture was also about “making the CARICOM and Single Market Economy a lived reality toward building sustainable economic development and resilience, that our community, the grouping of sovereign states with the will and contribution of all its people has the capacity the create our own transformation into resilient and competitive economies and societies where they all can prosper.
Admittedly that its pace in implementing the CSME has not kept pace with its vision of the architects of the treaty, she is hopeful that states are now at the place where parts of it will be implemented as critical areas are now addressed in order to deliver a sustainable future for the region.
She added the regional integration movement, while suffered many setbacks, many regions seek to emulate what CARICOM has achieved since its establishment, a common market, a common identity, and single economic space, and shared values, accomplishments she says are hardly celebrated because of what appears to be a lag behind the region has suffered with since 1990.
Because decisions made at CARICOM level require its implementation to be also done at national level, so while the progress might appear to be “less than overwhelming”, Dr Barnett says “there is no regional superstructure to do this given this time CARICOM is a union of sovereign states that dictates the pace in which it moves.
In March this year, a protocol of enhanced cooperation which makes provision for a subgroup of countries that are ready to move ahead and make regional decisions that are faster paced to do so with other countries when they are able. This she says “points to the determination to confront the implementation by carrying out reforms in the way the community conducts its affairs”.
And while noting there was a lot of work to be done, Secretary General Dr Barnett says other than depend on external consultants, “the secretariat proposes regional expert groups to provide structured technical advice to the community in development of policy and in implementation efforts, access to a broader range of experts found within think shops like regional universities, research bodies, regional experts, resident in the region and or in the diaspora, as a means of enriching deliberations and recommendations coming from the secretariat and community bodies.”
Dr Barnett shared that “regional economic transformation will also require the realization of the objectives of macro economic sectoral policy coordination as envisaged in chapter four of the revised treaty”. Drawing from Arthur’s advice in 2004 where he said “This single economy will be an ongoing effort for which there cannot be a fixed deadline” something that has since been reiterated and remains relevant today. She added that “it was therefore important that while we seek to make haste, as quickly as possible, we do not set ourselves impossible deadlines by which to accomplish only what be described as a major economically re-engineering and repositioning of CARICOM economies and their ultimate fusion into a dynamic competitive, economic space”. Dr Barnett added that Owen Arthur believed the “region had the capacity to do this, notwithstanding that while a group of sovereign states, it had also chosen the difficult route of integration whereby each member state retains exclusive powers for national implementation of decisions made at the regional level. It will be difficult to achieve but worth pursuing”.
Fielding questions on whether the CSME remains relevant and workable with the world moving ahead, Dr Barnett says the design that Arthur spoke about allowed for a level of flexibility to keep being a working progress through a series of areas, with priority matters such as agriculture, development of financial sector, all being addressed and evolved to address the challenges faced today.