Caribbean & Central America - July 2014 (ISSN 1741-4458)

At the start of the month, the 15-member Caribbean Community (Caricom) held its annual four day summit in Antigua & Barbuda. Gaston Browne, the host country’s Prime Minister and the conference’s chair, told reporters that the main outcome of the summit was “without doubt the approval of the Community’s first ever [five year] Strategic Plan” – the first such plan since Caricom was established in 1973. This followed a decision taken in 2012 after a major report was published on the future of the floundering regional entity. While the plan was hailed as a step forward, there were other significant developments taking place on the side-lines.

Browne said that the five-year plan, which was based on research and regional consultations conducted by Caricom’s ‘Change Facilitation Team’ (CFT), a working-group established in 2012, was designed to “reposition the Community…to meet the challenges of the international environment”. He identified as strategic priorities: “building economic resilience, social resilience, environmental resilience, technological resilience, strengthening the Caricom identity and spirit of community and strengthening community governance along with coordinated foreign policy; and research and development and innovation”.

As regards “economic resilience” – a major priority given tepid growth and rising debt levels as flagged up by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) in an April 2014 report [RC-14-05], the plan calls for measures to introduce “macro-economic stabilisation and competitiveness; and to unleash key economic drivers to transition to growth and generate employment, [plus] human capital development”.

With the full details of the plan yet to be made publicly available, it remains to be seen how it intends to tackle other problems identified in the 2012 report - namely“ longstanding frustrations with [Caricom’s] slow progress” and “a serious weakening in its structure and operation over a number of years”. While Browne did fleetingly mention “reformation of the Caricom Secretariat and its organs, bodies, institutions” as one of the “top areas of focus”, concrete measures have yet to be specified.

Within the summit's 31-item agenda, various other issues were also discussed that are worth mentioning. These include:

CCJ developments: The Caricom members welcomed Dominica’s 2 July approval of legislation to establish the Trinidad-based Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ) as its final court of appeal, replacing the UK’s Privy Council. As such, Dominica will soon join Barbados, Guyana, and Belize to become the fourth Caricom country to recognise CCJ jurisdiction. In his opening remarks at the Caricom conference, Browne said that his new government intended to hold a referendum on the issue and that other Caribbean countries should consider following a similar path as “we can never be truly independent in the region while our final appellate court is the court of our former colonial masters.”

Debt advocacy team: As part of a wider effort to promote fiscal sustainability and economic growth in the region, Caricom leaders announced that a ‘Debt Advocacy Team’ would be established within six months, tasked with lobbying international development agencies and financial institutions on behalf of highly indebted Caricom states, for “debt relief and/or debt amelioration”. The IMF April 2014 report noted that public debt levels averaged over 90% of GDP in the Caribbean's tourism-dependent economies in 2013. It singled out the debt levels in Antigua (92.2%), Barbados (92.0%), Belize (75.5%), Grenada (115%), St Lucia (79.8%) and Jamaica - the most indebted of the Caribbean economies, with gross public sector debt of 138.9% of GDP in 2013.

Commission to investigate marijuana use: Of interest to the US will be the Caricom pledge to establish a regional commission to “conduct a rigorous enquiry into the social, economic, health and legal issues surrounding marijuana use in the region and to advise whether there should be a change in the current drug classification of marijuana, thereby making the drug more accessible for a range of users”. This follows a the recent announcement by Jamaica’s justice minister, Mark Golding, that the government had decided to amend the Dangerous Drugs Act in order to decriminalise the possession of small quantities of marijuana for medicinal, religious and personal use.

• Montserrat

At the Caricom summit, Montserrat’s Premier Reuben T Meade notified those present of his government’s intention to accede to the Revised Treaty of Chaguaramas and to participate in the Caricom Single Market and Economy (CSME). Montserrat signed up to the 1973 Treaty of Chaguaramas which established Caricom but has yet to take the steps necessary to join the Revised Treaty, which was signed in 2001.