His Excellency- the Governor General and Lady Cooke;
Hon Chairman of Conference, the Hon Patrick Manning,
Prime Minister of Trinidad and Tobago;
The Most Honourable Percival James Patterson, O.N,
Prime Minister of Jamaica;
His Excellency the President of Suriname and Other
Distinguished Heads of Government;
Honourable Ministers of Government;
Leaders of the Parliamentary Opposition and other
Members of Parliament;
Members of the Diplomatic Corps;
The Hon. Chancellor of the University of the West
Indies, Sir George Alleyne, O.C.C.; Chancellor
Emeritus of the University of the West Indies Sir
Shridath Ramphal, O.C.C.;
The Vice Chancellor, the Principal and Staff of the
University of the West Indies
President of the Caribbean Development Bank, Dr
Compton Bourne;
Director General of the Organisation of the Eastern
Caribbean States Secretariat, Dr. Len Ishmael;
President of the Caribbean Court of Justice, Justice
Michael de la Bastide;
Sir Alister McIntyre, O.C.C., The Hon Roderick
Rainford; Other Distinguished Guests, including Dr
Roy Hastick, representing the Caribbean Diaspora;
Deputy Secretary-General Ambassador Lolita
Applewhaite and Staff of the CARICOM Secretariat;
CARICOM Youth Ambassadors;
Representatives of the Media;
Ladies and Gentlemen;
Fellow Citizens of the Caribbean;
I welcome you on this 30th day of the year of our
Lord 2006, not to Jamaica; I leave that to others
more qualified so to do. I welcome you to the
historically unprecedented higher level of regional
integration - that is, the CARICOM Single Market -
to which the people of the Caribbean Community have
now arrived.
Almost 17 years ago, one of my illustrious
predecessors as Secretary-General, the Hon. Roderick
Rainford, pointed out at the seminal Tenth Meeting
of the Conference of Heads of Government at Grand
Anse, Grenada that (and I quote) “experience has
taught us by now that the quest for integration is
something in the nature of an epic struggle, a
struggle for congruence between what we proclaim and
what we are able to do, a struggle to negotiate,
design and erect structures of co-operation and
integration where national interest and regional
purpose are brought into harmony.”
The purpose for which we are gathered here today
is to render formal acknowledgement of the success
of one such struggle. This ceremony to mark the
launch of the CARICOM Single Market, which came into
effect on 1st January 2006, gives us an opportunity
to celebrate a landmark in the progress of that
process which was initiated at that Grand Anse
Meeting in 1989.
It is truly a new dawn, long hoped for, but well
worth the waiting. A journey that began over a
generation ago by the Founding Fathers of CARIFTA
and guided from those earliest times by such
intrepid visionary regionalists as William Demas,
Alister McIntyre and Shridath Ramphal.
The arrival of the Single Market has generated a
great torrent of expectation across the Region. It
is an achievement, the great significance of which
cannot be overstated. Its substance involves the
very essence of Community – the co-mingling of its
peoples – its greatest assets.
For, important as the regime for the production
of, and trade in goods has been in the integration
process, and indeed, will continue to be, the Single
Market brings most centrally into the integration
process – people - particularly by providing for the
free movement of skilled CARICOM nationals, of
providers of services, of the self-employed and of
those establishing businesses. The Single Market
regime is, therefore, as we commonly say, “a horse
of a different colour.”
Ladies and Gentlemen, at the conclusion of that
historic 1989 Grand Anse Meeting, at which it was
agreed to “let all ideas contend” as then Prime
Minister A.N.R Robinson of Trinidad and Tobago
maintained, the Heads of Government declared that
they were “moved by the need to work expeditiously
together to deepen the integration process and
strengthen the Caribbean Community in all of its
dimensions to respond to the challenges and
opportunities presented by the changes in the global
economy.” That is what the Single Market and the
Single Economy to come, are intended to do. That
imperative, so clearly foreseen by them then,
remains no less urgent in today’s world, one which
presents us as small developing countries with the
stark choice - integrate or perish.
This bold and visionary step into a deeper
integration process, one which so far only the
European Union has trodden, has certainly fired the
imagination and raised the expectations of the
people of our Community. Since the coming into being
of the Single Market on 1st January, people from
numerous walks of life have been seeking information
about how they can take advantage of the process. By
the middle of last week, for example, according to a
report from one Member State, more than 2,000
applications had been received for the Caribbean
Skills Certificate - an important instrument for the
process of the free movement of skilled workers. And
the Single Market is only 30 days old!
In this situation, the onus is on our political,
business and administrative leadership to ensure
that the great expectations unleashed are met. This
is nowhere more evident than among our young
citizens mainly for whom and through whom this
venture must be successfully realised. We all need
to be critically aware of what the late Michael
Manley called “the nature of the historic locomotive
that rushes upon us.” We must be fully prepared for
it.
Ladies and Gentlemen, in closing, it is fitting
that this ceremony today, welcoming this new stage
of Caribbean regionalism, is being staged at one of
the flagship institutions of Caribbean regional
integration – the University of the West Indies -
and in the country that gave fresh impetus to the
integration movement some 59 years ago at Montego
Bay in 1947.
Also, it is a fitting tribute to our host Prime
Minister who, though he would obviously not have
been at Montego Bay, has been, since his entry onto
the regional political stage in 1972, central to
every major effort at regionalism. Few such would
have been as successful without the benefit and
direct involvement of this Caribbean Titan. His
guidance and wise counsel have been, without doubt,
of inestimable value to the development of the
Region - and indeed, to the very occasion we
celebrate today. And please allow me to add, this
guidance and counsel have also benefited me
personally, in whichever capacity I was fortunate
enough to be of service to the Region.
Thank you for it all, Most Honourable Prime
Minister Patterson!
And now I look forward to your address to this
ceremony marking the historic coming into being of
the CARICOM Single Market.
Your Excellencies, Honourable Heads of
Government, distinguished guests, ladies and
gentlemen, citizens of our Caribbean Community, I
thank you.
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