Midlife crisis for Caricom

The member states of the Caribbean Community (Caricom) are doing some soul searching these days, in an attempt to pinpoint the internal failures that have prevented them from advancing toward solid commercial integration in the 40 years since the organization was founded.

The heads of government of the 15 states that make up the bloc, gathered at the 34th summit that ends Saturday at Port of Spain (Trinidad and Tobago), are seeking formulas to resolve the transportation and customs problems that keep their nations cut off from each other, while encouraging a budding interregional trade. They are also considering the admission of Dominican Republic as a full-fledged member of Caricom, in an attempt to reinforce the group’s international presence.

Caricom was founded on July 4, 1973 in Port of Spain with the signing of the Treaty of Chaguaramas, making it the second-oldest economic integration movement after the European Union. Yet in all these years, its members have been unable to reach lasting deals to reinforce trade ties, common security and mutual development.

“Will Caricom remain the bloc that the builders rejected?” asked the Jamaican Observer in an editorial published on June 26, ahead of the summit.

Will Caricom remain the bloc that the builders rejected?” asked one editorial

The 15 countries that make up the Caribbean Community have small economies that produce the same goods and services —essentially sugar, bananas and tourism— a fact that does not encourage inter-island trade. Their development levels are diverse: per capita GDP in the Bahamas, the wealthiest member of the bloc, was 21,985 dollars in 2010 whereas in Haiti, the poorest member, it was 671 dollars over the same period, according to figures released by Cepal, the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean.

The agenda for this 34th summit was crafted on the premise that the gap had to be closed – first, from a physical standpoint by finding negotiation mechanisms to improve air and sea transportation among the island nations, and flexibilizing customs requirements for people and cargo.

“Our goods have to travel across the Caribbean in a faster, cheaper way. There is nothing more urgent for us right now than advancing toward integration and transportation,” said the prime minister of Granada, Keith Mitchell, in his inaugural address. Mitchell noted that it is easier to travel from the Caribbean to North America than to other islands in the region.

For the moment, Caricom has been unable to establish a single airline to connect its major airports and lower transportation costs, or failing that, at least securing an alliance among the six public and private airlines operating in the area and competing with one another for customers. The Inter-American Development Bank has offered to help develop a regional transportation plan, but national and business interests are working against it.

Another key point on the agenda is the incorporation of Dominican Republic as a full member of the alliance, at the proposal of Trinidad and Tobago. “The reform process that is currently taking place in the Community [...] is a direct attempt to bring about the institutional and structural reforms that we all recognize are needed to make Caricom more relevant in an ever-changing global environment. In this regard, may I urge you to consider expanding our membership to welcome Dominican Republic into the CARICOM family,” said the prime minister of Trinidad and Tobago, Kamla Persad-Bissessar, who is also the rotating chair of the bloc for the next six months.

Most Caricom members are insular states that also belong to the Commonwealth of Nations. Twelve of them are additionally part of Petrocaribe, an energy cooperation mechanism set up in 2005 by deceased Venezuelan leader Hugo Chávez to finance his partners’ oil purchases and increase his own political influence in the area.

China and the United States have also expressed an interest in developing energy projects in the region, especially in Trinidad and Tobago, which has significant gas and oil reserves. To prove it, US Vice-President Joe Biden and Chinese President Xi Jinping both visited Port of Spain in late June, just three days apart. The challenge put forward by the island nation is to use this renewed interest to lead a relaunch of Caricom.