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The Greater
Caribbean This Week: More Struggles in the Periphery.
By: Luis Carpio, the Director of Transport and
Natural Disasters of the Association of Caribbean States.
"The greatest hazard of all, losing one’s self, can occur
very quietly in the world, as if it were nothing at all. No
other loss can occur so quietly; any other loss—an arm, a
leg, five dollars, a wife, etc.—is sure to be noticed."
Søren Kierkegaard.
February 13, 2008: With the Free Trade Agreement of
the Americas (FTAA) dead in the water, the Doha Round[i] in
dry-dock, the smokestacks of the Economic Partnership
Agreement between CARICOM/Dominican Republic and the EU
(EPA) looming ever-larger on the Caribbean horizon and
bilateral trade negotiations with The North leaving
ubiquitous wakes, what follows may seem naïve, particularly
coming from a Director for Transport and Natural Disasters
(not that you could tell from my tortured metaphors).
Certainly, I am not oblivious to the ongoing high-caliber
and disciplined debate in our Greater Caribbean (GC)
regarding these initiatives, in particular on the EPA, given
the recent letter by my ex-boss and (still) dear friend
Norman Girvan and other notables on the matter.
I am furthermore painfully aware of how audacious it is to
weigh in with my harebrained opinions into this discussion
between distinguished academics and leaders. The following
should thus be accepted as nothing more than a voice from
the peanut gallery and a gentle reminder to the public.
The GC has been variously proposed as a reality from many,
equally valid, points of view (geographic, cultural,
political, economic etc.) and integration has always been a
stated aspiration, one, albeit, always seemingly beyond our
grasp. As Michael Manley, many of our Founding Fathers saw
concentric circles of integration as a prerequisite for our
interweaving into the global fabric and especially, for the
end to our “struggle in the periphery”.
Most of our attempts at the brass ring of integration,
however, have been repeatedly thwarted by a single-minded
emphasis on trade liberalisation as the alpha and omega,
with the accompanying belief that dropped tariffs and other
barriers will, on their own, bring forth a new age of
brotherhood based on (of all things) mercantilism. The
problem with brass rings is, of course, that once you miss,
it takes a full “revolution” before you get another chance.
If integration into the global economy is to be more than an
end in itself and is instead seen as the engine for the
prosperity of our people, comprehensive regional integration
is fundamental to sustainable development strategies that
hold out any hope of even approaching the Millennium
Development Goals, as it reinforces our governments’ ability
to take part effectively in the globalisation process. A
Comprehensive regional integration which includes the
lifting of tariffs and other trade barriers but also
addresses other factors which impact our sustainable
development (such as, oh I don’t know, common transport and
disaster reduction strategies), will afford our region the
capacity to face up to the big bad world as a united force
to be reckoned with at, for example, the WTO, whilst
providing a safe harbour in times of global economic (and
other) strife.
In the absence of robust scenarios such as that promised by
an appropriately liked Caribbean Single Market and Economy (CSME),
Central American Integration System (SICA), ACS, as well as
Colombia, Mexico and Venezuela and that takes into account
the non independent territories, our region’s asymmetries
practically guarantee that we run the risk of creating an
underclass of nations in our region or, what’s worse: a
region of the underclass.
Let’s by all means walk into the big, deep, dark forest of
the world, but let us also do it with our eyes wide open and
not lose sight of the trees...or of our Self.
