Press release 10/2005
(7 January 2005)

Outgoing Chairman of COTED, Hon. Montgomery Daniel, Minister of State in the Ministry of Agriculture St Vincent and the Grenadines
Incoming Chairman of COTED, Hon Michael Jong Tjien Fa, Minister of Trade and Industry of Suriname
Hon. Clement Rohee, Minister of Foreign Trade and International Cooperation
Ministers of Government of Member States of the Community
Representatives of Institutions of the Caribbean Community
Members of the Media
Ladies and Gentlemen

Secretary-General, en route to Mauritius, sends best wishes.

Our Achievements Towards Establishing the CSME at the End of 2004

2005 is the "Year of the Single Market".

In our march towards the establishment of the CSME, we have made progress in a number of areas but much work remains to be done. We have moved market restrictions and the harmonisation of the rules of the Single Market while we continue to build the framework for the Single Economy.

Completing the legal framework for the CSME has been at the center of attention throughout 2004. The Revised Treaty has been ratified by all but three Member States.

Although at the end of 2004 all Member States were still behind their 2003 and 2004 deadlines regarding the programme to remove Chapter III restrictions, we are confident that the programme will be completed by the end of 2005.

The instruments for hassle-free travel have been introduced throughout the market. Common Lines for all CARICOM Nationals have been established at all Immigration Points of Entry.

We however are disappointed that the Common ED Card and the Common Passport are not yet part of our daily-lived experience. We are experiencing an unavoidable delay in the inauguration of the Caribbean Court of Justice.

We must be sensitive and indeed responsive to the concerns of the citizens of the Member States of our Community who have been nervous about two of the five pillars of the Single Market, namely the free movement of skills and the free exercise of the right of establishment. There is fear about loss of jobs held by nationals and concern that non-national companies are increasingly occupying what was traditionally held to be domestic markets.

For all this, we cannot stop, reverse or even slow the process of implementation. Rather, we must examine the evidence regarding the impact on our people of the measures implemented thus far and take the appropriate policy and other actions to bring relief to the affected and likely to be affected sections of our Community.

A Work Programme identifying and prioritising the work necessary for the completion of the implementation of the CSME has been finalised with a view to mobilising the required resources. Completing the technical work and setting in motion the legal, institutional and financial arrangements for the operation of the Regional Development Fund is a top priority for 2005.

Turning Attention to the Single Economy

The task of finishing the construction of the Single Economy is considerable but this year must mark unequivocally when we firmly lay down the cornerstones of this component of the enterprise to create the CSME.

The Conference of Heads has set in motion a schedule to move the agenda for the Single Economy forward, focussing on a set of key macroeconomic instruments.

The Priorities on the Macroeconomic Component of the Single Economy Agenda Include:

• Financial Services Policy Harmonization: by 31 March 2005
• Capital Market Integration: by 30 June 2005
• Investment Policy Harmonization (CARICOM Investment Code): by 31 December 2005
• Incentives Policy Harmonization: by 30 June 2006
• Fiscal Policy Harmonization: by 31 December 2006
• Final Stage of Monetary Cooperation: by 30 June 2007

Sectoral Areas

The development of the real economic sectors has assumed a special priority. Benefits from creating the Single Market will flow to all stakeholders where investment, employment and economic expansion take place in our real economic sectors.

Institutional Issues and Implementation

A pressing priority is the drafting of a Regional Development Strategy, important subsets of which are a Regional Strategic Sectoral Plan and a strategy for developing cross-border enterprises. In order to set a clear agenda for the sectors included in the Strategic Sectoral Plan, operational plans must be developed for each of the specialist task forces and working groups, which already exist.

The endorsement by the Conference of the establishment of a Caribbean Economic Commission to facilitate implementation of the CSME, involving the private sector and other stakeholders is a positive signal.

Involvement of Non-state Actors in the CSME Process

Non-state actors have to take full ownership and be active participants in the CSME process. Private sector, labour and other civil society currently have access to the Conference and other Ministerial Organs of the Community - access that is not fully and effectively utilized. The COTED may consider exploring during the course of this year approaches to deeper engagement with the non-state actors that increases their role and contribution to the implementation of the CSME.

The CSME Interface with the External Environment

It is important at the beginning of this year that as a Community we take stock of the challenges which are before us in respect of our trade and other economic engagements with third states and groups of states. The status of trade negotiations in the several negotiating theatres in which we are engaged and our readiness to proceed in the multilateral and regional trading arrangements in which we participate will take on added importance. We must pursue our domestic agenda to complete the CSME with a strategic eye on the emerging threats and opportunities and the responsibilities, which we have already assumed.

One of our most important current engagements is the Partnership Agreement negotiation with the European Union. In view of the 2008 timetable for completion of the negotiations it is important to note that the Conference also set 2008 as the approximate year for completion of the Single Economy.

The interrelationship between the substantive elements and scheduling aspects of the CSME and CARIFORUM-EPA is a matter, which should be of some interest to the COTED.

The CARIFORUM-EPA is not our only concern. We have outstanding issues regarding implementation of and benefiting from our bilateral agreements such as the CARICOM-Dominican Republic Free Trade Agreement, ongoing developments at the WTO and resurgence of the FTAA process are also issues we must monitor closely. The prevailing hiatus in the multilateral and hemispheric trade liberalization processes presents us with the opportunity to complete the CSME and create thereby a coherent negotiating agenda that position us to defend and advance our interests effectively at the restart of these processes.

The Agenda

Finally, I come to the matters to be decided during the course of this Eighteenth Meeting of the COTED. The most substantial matter for this year is the CSME readiness of all member States.

Some stakeholders of CARICOM still challenge those of us in policy development and implementation, on matters relating to the incomplete agenda for trade in goods. The irony is that as the oldest component of the economic integration process, the list of issues relating to trade in goods appears to grow longer each year. We will be hard pressed to convince the Community that the CSME is moving ahead when they see and experience a continuing long list of unresolved issues. Agricultural trade has been especially susceptible to restrictive measures and tendencies in the Community. We must be especially careful to ensure that members of the farming communities and unskilled labour and the rank and file members of our Community are not the victims of these restrictive measures.

This COTED has the opportunity to lead the final push towards delivering the Single Market. The COTED may wish to consider instructions to the technicians to compile a comprehensive account of and set out a plan of operations for all outstanding measures relating to the goods regime so that we may bring closure to this aspect of the Single Market.

We are encouraged that the plans for right of establishment and for liberalization of services, capital and skills is in the homestretch. The matters concerning external trade and economic relations require special consideration at this time.

The threat to our sunset industries remains grave. We have not enjoyed much success in our external trade, in spite of the many trade agreements, which we have established with our trading partners in the Caribbean Basin and the wider Americas, and Europe. The matters on the Agenda of this meeting require creative solutions to save our industries, protect our trading interests and create new opportunities for growth.

We remain vulnerable in the area of transportation, and serious action is required to deliver us from the tightening stranglehold of weak carriers and poor services in the area of air transportation.

The Caribbean Regional Organisation for Standards and Quality (CROSQ) is clearly taking off. The active process of standards development and the expansion of the work of the standards institutions in our Community is a cause for celebration, because of the hope this brings to our activities in the field of international trade. We need a faster pace of standards preparation and implementation. I notice that for this meeting several standards are up for approval by the COTED including for poultry. There are several other agricultural goods now restricted by the sanitary and phytosanitary controls of Member States, which would benefit from a similar effort in standards preparation and approval.

There is much to do and little time to do what we must before the end of 2005. Our moment of truth has indeed arrived.

Conclusions

We have made progress towards economic integration even though sometimes the progress is halting, uncertain and cluttered with incomplete action. This is clearly not the moment for hesitation, doubt and delay. We must use this COTED Meeting to solve outstanding problems and be decisive on the next steps and we must retain from this meeting onwards and throughout 2005 the resolve and conviction that completing the CSME is our only viable option in the immediate and indeed foreseeable future.