With a population of three-quarter million, our market is simply too small for us to seriously consider autarkic economic policies. That is, achieving self-sufficiency in fulfilling our basic needs, which, it would appear, Burnham aspired towards when he effectively banned several essential items during his dictatorship. Ironically, he acknowledged the unreality of that aspiration when he helped usher in CARIFTA – a free trade zone – among a number of ex-British West Indian colonies (1968) which then evolved into CariCom in 1973. At a minimum, the leaders were hoping to benefit from the assumed “economies of scale”, but also aspiring to create a “community” with all that implies. They were imitating the example of the ex-colonial European rulers who had formed the European Economic Community (EEC) in 1958 and which morphed into the European Union in 1992.
But the colonial order had imposed a mindset that violated the first law of Geography: “everything is related to everything else, but near things are more related than distant things.” To wit, that while the entire world is related – and increasingly so in an age of hyper globalization – for us in Guyana, our neighbors in South America were logically “more related” physically and advantage should have been taken to convert that contingency into economic ties to create synergies way above economies of scale. Especially when we shared with Brazil, one of the largest economies in the world, a border and historically good relations. A Common Single Market and Economy (CSME) goal was adopted by CariCom in 1989 but never fructified even between us and next-door Suriname, which became a member in 1996. CSME was put on “pause”, and remains in suspended animation.
In the meantime, under the leadership of our Southern neighbors Brazil and Argentina, South America had embarked on its own ambitious “Southern Union” – Mercosur – in 1991. In 2013 Guyana became an “Associate State” through a special arrangement that qualified states which had special trade arrangements with a Mercosur member – in this case Brazil. This was the “Economic Complementation Partial Scope Agreement” of 2001, which allowed tariff-free entry to an enumerated number of Guyanese products. Unfortunately, after an initial rapid increase in intra-Mercosur trade, the benefits of the union lagged by the time we joined. Mercosur, like CariCom has not moved from being a trade agreement to a customs union. China. has since become the largest trade partner with all of the Mercosur states and this remains the status quo today.
However, the just concluded visit of the President of Suriname along with a large complement of high-level government officials to promote a raft of trade and other economic agreements suggest that Guyana is poised to enter a new era as far as effectively taking economic advantage of the first law of geography – especially to enter into global and regional value chains. With Guyana and Suriname serendipitously becoming probably the last major oil/petroleum play in South America – if not the world – as we move into a new regime of renewable energy, there is much scope for cooperation and this was given official recognition. Agreements on the Corentyne Bridge between Suriname and Guyana and the completion of the paved Linden-Lethem Highway will make trade with Brazil much more feasible as had been expected with the Tataku Bridge into the latter country. Earlier this year, President Ali had already indicated the intention of his administration to strengthen economic linkages with South American neighbors and this was reiterated by both him and President Santoki as they evinced an early meeting with the president of a Brazil was in the cards.
This year marks the 30th anniversary of Mercosur and maybe the leaders of this important economic bloc might be inspired by its early promise and accomplishments to once again test the maxim that in unity lies strength. And Guyana and Suriname might at last be able to fulfill their post-colonial continental destiny.
