Carrington Still Hopes For Bahamas In CSME:
By Tameka Lundy -
Nassau, Bahamas:

WASHINGTON – There have been constant references this week to the CARICOM Single Market and Economy (CSME) as a pivotal plank in the region’s move toward integration, but the economic harmonization is occurring without the participation of The Bahamas.

CARICOM point persons have suggested that there are alternative fronts on which The Bahamas can advance in the realm of regional integration. However, there was a clearly expressed hope that The Bahamas will eventually endorse CSME.

"[The Bahamas] has joined a large number of other parts of the integration process and one of the things we are saying is that the integration process is not just the CSME," CARICOM Secretary General Edwin Carrington told the Bahama Journal at the Conference on the Caribbean.

"There is coordination of our foreign policy; that is how we speak with the world with one voice. There is what we call functional cooperation, education, health and so forth. All these elements are part of the integration process."

Prime Minister Hubert Ingraham said soon after he assumed office in May that he was not interested in economic integration with the Caribbean region and preferred instead to consider other areas.

Mr. Carrington still remains hopeful that things will change.

"We do hope The Bahamas will come on board eventually and not too long from now," he said.

Prime Minister Ingraham has said he expects the Caribbean Community to refocus its CSME agenda away from economics and toward social issues.

Mr. Ingraham had been in contact with Barbados Prime Minister Owen Arthur.

"He will become chairman [of CARICOM] in July and I think that the Caribbean is going to begin to refocus its CSME agenda away from the economic issues toward some social issues, like health and education, and they are things that places like The Bahamas and Bermuda and the Caymans and the Turks and Caicos could become interested in," said the prime minister when asked about his government’s position on CSME.

"I got the impression that that’s what the incoming chairman of CARICOM proposes to do to re-engage us in the process of the discussion because the economic side of CSME is not a matter in which The Bahamas has an interest in whatsoever."

Managing Director of the World Bank Graeme Wheeler acknowledged that agreeing on a common agenda across so many diverse states is challenging and he commended the governments of the region for displaying the courage to pursue this path despite the divergence of views.

"Regionalism will require ongoing and political will and commitment but the benefits can be enormous," he said.

Prime Minister Arthur, who has the lead role for the CSME, has classified the enhancement of prospects of sustainable equitable development in the Caribbean through regional integration as a strategic matter on which the region must remain constructively engaged.

"We are poised now to move toward the creation of a framework within which our respective economies can function as a Single Economy," he said.

"Through such a framework, we propose to harmonize our macro economic policies and deepen the coordination of our external trade policies. There is already a Draft CARICOM Investment Code and a Draft CARICOM Financial Agreement.

"Work is proceeding on enhanced monetary cooperation, the harmonization of interest rate policies, incentive policies, fiscal policy harmonization and the development of our financial and capital markets."

Also, to ensure that integration efforts in the region lead to equitable development, a programme of special, affirmative and differential treatment in favour of our lesser developed member states, or for entities that experience disadvantage from participating in the integration exercise has been devised.

21st June 2007