CARICOM losing momentum – Chairman

Tillman. Photo credit: Evan Schneider/UN photo

Current Caribbean Community (CARICOM) chairman, Prime Minister Tillman Thomas of Grenada, has spoken about the “skepticism” of the Community’s populace and the significant economic challenges that member states were currently facing.

He said, “I am of the view that this scenario begs for a fundamental reappraisal of our approach, our management and our commitment toward the integration process. I submit that failure to engage in such an exercise will be detrimental and unresponsive to our people’s wishes and the gravity of the current environmental dictates.”

The CARICOM chairman also spoke of the region’s people being “restless and concerned” with many holding the view that CARICOM appeared to be languishing in a false state of “implementation impotence in our slow march towards the CSME.”

Leaders of CARICOM are to meet in Guyana in July ahead of their next annual summit in St Kitts to reassess the commitment to integration. At the just ended half yearly conference in Grenada it was agreed that the regional integration effort was lagging.

A BBC Caribbean Report stated that there has been increasing concern that the process has stalled.

The official statement issued at the end of the leaders’ half-yearly meeting confirms that there appeared to be a loss in the momentum. It admitted that there was a need to reassess approaches, with a view to determining the most effective way forward.

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5 Comments

  1. Eyes wide open
    March 1, 2011

    I think that this caricom thing is a fraud, a farce and there is no benefit to us being a member state. If all the members of caricom were actually serious about the thriving of all the states we would have been on a better scale than this, especially when it comes to dealling with the more developed nations. But no, every island wants to big up its own and there you have it. Even for this free movement of nationals for work etc.., that a farce too. If anyone has had to seek emploment in other islands they would note that this is very difficult even if you are a caricom national. Just a bunch of people looking out for themselves, making big bucks, travelling the globe with the pretense that they are representatives of caricom organisation, it needs to be dissolved as there are no benefits to us.

  2. Piper
    March 1, 2011

    Except Caribbean people feel much closer than the politicians will admit. This is just another job creator for bureaucrats

  3. warma
    March 1, 2011

    I think the entire CARICOM integration thing is being held up by the big countries who, (1) – think they can go alone – just examine the behavior of Jamaica’s PM who said Jamaica don’t need to be any part of a Caribbean Court of Appeals because it may be subject to political pressure, and that Jamaica can have their own Court of Appeals, AS IF a Jamaican court will not be subject to domestic Jamaican politics – anyone who believes that I got a piece of prime real estate on the moon to sell you. Also, let’s not forget Trinidad’s PM recent set of mishaps relating to the smaller islands of the Eastern Caribbean – no need to remind anyone what that was all about…(2) – I am convinced that the larger islands do not respect the smaller islands as they should – we’re just a source of funds to them, they sell us their goods, buy little of ours – and that’s it.

    Just look how long the integration process has been going on within the region. Since the days of Federation – that’s even before I was born, and i’ve been around a few decades. Now, juxtapose that with the existence of the OECS grouping. In the short time the OECS has been around, we small islands have done more to work together than the larger CARICOM grouping has ever done in all those years. I totally support the coming together of us in the OECS, not necessarily as one government, but we can certainly integrate many parts of our society – uniformity in fiscal policy, trade policy, health services, employment opportunities, environment, foreign affairs – in other words, we should seek cohesion on as many issues we can that affect our lives.

    We are all the same in these small islands – we should move forward the same as well.

  4. Reason
    March 1, 2011

    CARICOM is a club for members of the new bureaucratic elite of the Caribbean so they can get big jobs and run their mouth. The way things are now, we seem to be content with all of our little nation states doing their own thing, while at the same time maintaining a loose relationship with each other.

    Any closer union than this will not work. Lets just keep our loose OECS and get along with our lives. We gone too far down the road to independence to think we can have one government and one headquarters for all of the islands joined together. It is a pipe dream. And spending any more time and money on a myth like that is a waste of both time and money.

    • Went
      March 1, 2011

      We islanders like sparrow said: “Just tell the Dr. you not in favour don’t behave like blasted traitors”

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