Today is Caricom Day in Guyana, and even though the regional body has 15 members, we are one of only two territories that have honoured the day in this fashion. The question as to why this was so raises the implicit question as to whether Guyana has more reasons than the 13 others to appreciate Caricom. Since in the realm of foreign affairs, every country is supposed to be looking out to protect and promote its own national interest first and foremost without apology, ultimately Guyanese have to ask what has Caricom done for them after 45 years of paying our dues – in all the ways demanded – in addition to hosting the Secretariat.
First and foremost, Caricom has stood in Guyana’s corner against the existential threat posed by Venezuela since it arbitrarily claimed two-thirds of our national territory in 1962. This is not inconsiderable support since the 15 votes of the bloc at the United Nations General Assembly and various UN agencies played a large role in fending off Venezuelan revanchism during the 1970s.
Their votes will be just as important in the upcoming period since the International Court of Justice (ICJ) is expected to eventually rule in our favour, but Venezuela has already pronounced it will not accept the jurisdiction of the court. World opinion will have to be brought to bear upon the Venezuelans and the Caricom bloc will form an invaluable core support from which we can expand.
The greatest failure from a Guyanese perspective is the refusal of Caricom to quit their handwringing on their imported food bill which inexorably grew from less than US$2 billion in 1973 when the group was launched to the present US$4 billion. The basic problem was the underdevelopment of the islands when they were colonies to simply produce primary agricultural products that would be manufactured to add value in the “mother countries”. Guyana always had the agricultural potential to solve what is now called a “food security” problem on Caricom’s agenda but it was not taken up.
In 2002, then President Bharrat Jagdeo proposed a plan, soon dubbed the “Jagdeo Initiative on Agriculture”, which outlined the constraints to developing our agricultural potential and allocated responsibilities to members of Caricom based on their comparative advantage in particular areas. Guyana, for instance, volunteered agricultural land at very nominal rates to investors from the other members of Caricom. After years of interminable meetings and investigations and reports, Guyanese still have not been informed as to why the Jagdeo Initiative petered out. Cynics can only conclude, after witnessing initiatives such as Trinidad with their failed “mega farms” that there was no inclination from the other members of Caricom to have Guyana develop its agricultural potential.
Another high-profile failure has been the inability to consummate the Common Single Market and Economy (CSME), which was mooted since 1989 to guarantee the free movement of goods, services, people, capital and technology in Caricom.
The model which actually started its precursor, the Caribbean Free Trade Area (Carifta) in 1968, was the European Economic Community (EEC). When the EEC expanded not only the number of members but also their vision of creating greater unity and launched the European Union (EU) in 1973, the Caribbean Community (Caricom) was launched to emulate their goals.
Sadly, we have not been able to form a Common Market, much less a Common Economy. This failure has been due to the same parochialism that destroyed the West Indian Federation in 1962: each member refused to delegate executive authority to an extra-governmental body that could have responsibility AND authority to implement decisions taken by the Heads of Government (HoGs).
But that does not mean that Caricom does not have any other successes. Most of these, however, have been outside the political realm where the HoGs are not involved. The Caribbean Examination Council (CXC), for instance, has successfully weaned us away from the metropole-centred and the Caribbean Epidemiology Centre (CAREC) has coordinated our response to communicable diseases.
Maybe Caricom can redeem itself by addressing the cricket impasse this week.
