CARIBBEAN TODAY F nT U R 6 CARICOR PATRICK KNIGHT BRIDGETOWN, Barbados - Caribbean community (CARI- COM) leaders left last month's mid term summit in St. Vincent and the Grenadines with a vision of 2008 as a date with destiny even as they firmly set the region's focus on 2015 as the marker for a new milestone in the regional integration movement. In many respects Chairman Dr. Ralph Gonsalves, the St. Vincent and the Grenadines prime minister, was accurate when he identified 2008 as "the region's date with destiny," as that year will see the ushering in of the CARICOM Single Economy and the start of new trade relationships with Europe, the United States and globally through the World Trade Organization. But while the first feeble steps towards the Single Economy the second compo- nent of the CARICOM Single Market and Economy will be taken in 2008, it will not be until seven years later in 2015 that the long held vision of a fully integrated Caribbean community could become a reality. While some regional com- mentators view the 2015 date as a delay, Barbados Prime Minister Owen Arthur, the man charged with the responsi- bility for overseeing the CSME, said it was never the intention of regional leaders to implement the Single Market as a "done deal" in 2008, but only to have the framework in place to start the complex task. "Do not expect to see the Single Economy coming in one fell swoop, we have sequenced the activity in two phases, that which will take place between 2008 and 2009 and then up to 2015," Arthur said, noting that the plan was not about offering "quick fix" solutions. REALISTIC OR NOT? But is the seven-year win- dow to achieve the CSME a realistic target? Arthur believes that once the timelines in the Professor Norman Girvan study "Towards a Single Economy and a Single A eyes 2008 as Caribbean's 'date with Development Vision" are strict- Full implementation of the ly adhered to, the Single free movement of service Implementation schedule for Economy can become a providers; harmonization of financial reg- Caribbean reality by the 2015 tar- ulatory environment. get. The implementation of legal "The Single Economy will not simply appear. We are seeking to take 15 separate economies and put them t< g;L Ilh r, developing the sec- tors >I;L IIL r, have similar poli- cies, have regional institutions that support the functioning of the sectors, address matters rel- ative to whether we are going to have a monetary union or not and have social institutions to make the economy func- status for the CARICOM Charter for Civil Society. * The establishment and com- mencement of the Regional Development Fund; * Establishment of the Regional Stock Exchange; uuncan Gonsalves tion," Arthur said. "This is now spelt out for the first time in the Girvan paper but it does not mean that the economy comes into exis- tence merely because this doc- ument has been prepared and approved, but it now means that we have set out how we are going to approach it." The paper by Girvan, a former secretary general of the Association of Caribbean States, sets out the sequencing for the implementation of the Single Market in two phases - up to the end of 2008 and from 2009 2015. Key areas included in the first phases to be imple- mented by mid-2008 are: * Political approval for the broad outline of the develop- ment vision and regional devel- opment strategy; * Extension of the categories of CARICOM nationals bene- fiting from free movement; * Political approval of the CARICOM Investment Regime and CARICOM Financial Services Agreement; and * Collaboration with stake- holders on regional policy frameworks for energy related industries, agriculture, sustain- able tourism and agro-tourism, new export services, transport and small and medium enter- prises. AGREEMENT Needing political agreement by July 2008 and to be implement- ed no later than Jan. 1, 2009 are: * Negotiation and political approval of the protocol on enhanced monetary cooperation; * Agreement among central banks on CARICOM currency numeraire (generally a com- modity in terms of which all goods are valued); * Implementation schedule for harmonization of taxation regimes and fiscal incentives; and r6ww -arbbentda.com destiny' w General Accounting Auditing Payroll Taxes Business Personal 561 N.W. 183rd Street Miami, Florida 33169 TEL: (305) 654-9303 FAX: (305) 654-8758 EMAIL: fargson@bellsouth. net Faris A. Hanna, M.D., E.A.C.O.G, P.A. 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'MYSTIFIED' While leaders emerging from the summit appeared happy with the staged implemen- tation scheduled, regional politi- cal scientist Professor Neville Duncan told the Caribbean Media Corporation he is "mysti- fied" that governments still feel they have some major hurdles to overcome before full implemen- tation of the CSME. "If you have established a development fund which is sup- posed to ease the challenges and burdens to countries which are likely to be initially disadvan- taged by the single market and economy why then should one have to wait until 2015?" Prof Duncan asked. "But I guess 2015 is anoth- er magical date because that's when there's a hope that the millennium development goals will be fulfilled, but that does- n't look the case for many countries," the director of the Sir Arthur Lewis Institute of Social Economic Studies (SALISES) at the Mona cam- pus of the University of the West Indies added. He said Caribbean people were fully supportive of the integration movement and sug- gested that if they were unsure of where the region's people story, CARICOM leaders could engage an agency such as SALISES to conduct a regional survey to gauge the region's position on the matter. "Maybe then they would be persuaded but clearly the study done in Jamaica shows conclusively the strong com- mitment of Jamaican people in general towards integration and we see from Caribbean business people that they are not laggard in what needs to be done," Prof. Duncan said. As they continue the march towards the 2015 vision, the words of Dr. Gonsalves, a poet as much as a prime minis- ter, will remain relevant to Caribbean leaders: "We, who have come with our limiting burdens of yester- day, face today with immense possibilities, amidst an amazing grace for our glorious tomor- rows. We remember, we know, we dream, and we act for our people and for generations unborn. It is our destiny." - CMC 0