Caribbean & Central America - 16 November 2004

At the special Caricom summit, held on 8-9 November in Port of Spain, progress towards the Caricom Single Market and Economy (CSME) was reported to be on target for implementation by end 2005. Trinidad & Tobago, Barbados, and Jamaica are likely to be ready by the beginning of the year. However, Trinidad's Prime Minister Patrick Manning appeared to suggest that his country's continued assistance to its neighbours was dependent on greater political integration in the southern Caribbean.

A statement issued at the end of the two-day summit said: 'Those states committed to meeting the 2004 timeline are on track for achieving this. Those on target for 2005 will be able to do so with some technical assistance and facilitation by the Caricom Secretariat […] A realistic assessment of the implementation of the CSME by member states indicates that, overall, the core measures relating to the establishment of the single market would be in place by December 2005.'

The statement also pointed to some modest increase in its immediate ambitions, saying: 'The Conference agreed that it was time to expand the categories of Caricom nationals who have the right to free movement with the Community beyond the five stated professional categories - graduates, media workers, artistes, musicians, and sportspersons.' A submission on this will be made to the heads of government in time for their July 2005 meeting.

The statement also emphasized that the creation of a single market was only a stepping stone on the way to a single economy. It said: 'The heads of government […] share the view that movement from the single market to the single economy constitutes an advance beyond market arrangements to the establishment for competitive production in the Region. 

To this end, heads of government agree to an indicative timeline of 2008 for the Single Economy and have mandated the preparation of a regional development strategy in time for adoption at their inter-sessional meeting in February 2005.'

All this seemed well and good, but in his opening remarks on 8 November, Trinidad's Prime Minister Patrick Manning added a note of controversy. He laid out his stall by outlining Trinidad's contribution to socio-economic development in the region. Amongst other things, he pointed out that Trinidad:

• had set up a US$6m relief package to help six states that had suffered extensive damage from Hurricane Ivan.
• had been allowing countries and companies in the region to borrow on the domestic market (US$500m last year).
• was to contribute US$50m for poverty eradication to be administered by the Caribbean Development Bank.
• was looking at supplying natural gas via two pipelines to Barbados, Martinique, St Lucia, Guadeloupe, Dominica, Antigua, St Kitts, Grenada, and St Vincent. A separate arrangement was being negotiated with Jamaica.
• intended to expand a radar system that provides security for Trinidad to cover Grenada and St Vincent. Manning said: 'As Trinidad & Tobago takes steps to protect its own border, we cannot remain oblivious to the need for proper border protection and drug interdiction efforts in the entire Eastern Caribbean, an issue that is beginning to loom larger and larger on the economic and social landscape of the region'.

But having made his point about Trinidad's contribution to regional development and security, Manning added that Port of Spain could only 'continue to assist in the context of some agreement among Caricom countries' for further integration. 

This is not the first time Manning has argued for deeper political integration in the southern Caribbean. In 1995 he raised the idea of a union involving Trinidad, Barbados, and Guyana. This trouble is, though, that relations between Trinidad and its southern Caribbean neighbours are not without their complications, not least because of an acrimonious fishing dispute with Barbados in which Guyana is to some degree a partner to Barbados. 

The issue became more complicated when Barbados referred the dispute to arbitration under the United Nations Convention of the Law of the Seas (UNCLOS) in February this year. By referring the dispute to arbitration, Barbados is also seeking a ruling on a 1990 maritime treaty between Trinidad and Venezuela which Barbados says 'purports unilaterally to appropriate to Venezuela and Trinidad & Tobago an enormous part of Barbados's and Guyana's maritime territory, as well as one third of Guyana's land territory.' As part of its drive to settle this issue, Barbados signed an Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) Cooperation Treaty with Guyana in December 2003.

Notwithstanding this, Barbados's Prime Minister Owen Arthur gave his own support for further integration, saying: 'There is no good reason why countries in the region should not deepen the political cooperation among themselves, and I fundamentally feel that there is tremendous scope in the region for us to carry forward the process of political cooperation in a way to help governments rationalize the provision of services to their citizens.' He called for a 'deepening of the process of cooperation beyond the economic sphere'.

But Arthur's support for further integration was clearly not intended to be on the terms suggested by Manning. He took a dig at Manning for suggesting that Trinidad's continuing assistance to its neighbours was dependent of closer political ties in the southern Caribbean. He said: 'I don't think he [Manning] would feel nor any Caribbean country would feel that you could have a process of financial colonization and that people are being enticed to join a union in return for financial contribution.'

He added: 'I don't feel that Trinidad would imagine it would want to take on all the responsibilities of financing the development of other Caribbean islands merely to say that it is involved in a political relationship; that would be very unwise and very expensive.'

• Trinidad & Tobago reported economic growth of 12.8% in the fiscal year ending in October. GDP growth was driven by liquid natural gas (LNG) exports. Trinidad is in the process of expanding its LNG production: the first offshore natural gas drilling platform designed and constructed in the Caribbean will be up and running by March 2005 and will be fully operational by January 2006. The 900-ton, four-level platform, which will be installed 30 miles off the southeast coast, will extract some crude, but its main purpose will be to extract natural gas for the Atlantic LNG plants in Trinidad. Trinidad, which has proven natural gas reserves of 30 trillion cubic feet, recently became the leading supplier of LNG to the US, supplying 75% of imports in 2003.