Jamaica's call for a summit of Caribbean Community (Caricom) leaders, to discuss the proposed 'political union' between Trinidad and Tobago and its Eastern Caribbean neighbours of Grenada, St Vincent and St Lucia, is not unreasonable, so long as there is no a priori assumption on Kingston's part that any such arrangement would be inherently bad for the community and Jamaica's role in it.

To be fair, Prime Minister Bruce Golding has said that his Government will evaluate Jamaica's position on the proposed union, after the broader regional talks. Yet, there are many who will read into Kingston's initial response, a kind of scepticism that is laying the basis for an opt-out clause from Caricom.

But even before discussion of Jamaica's eventual position on the planned union, the more immediate question is whether what has been placed on the table by the Trinidadian Prime Minister Patrick Manning and his Eastern Caribbean colleagues - Tillman Thomas (Grenada), Ralph Gonsalves (St Vincent), Stephenson King (St Lucia) - is practical and implementable.

Project makes sense

On the face of it, this project makes sense, for, despite the problems and deficits of Caricom, there is no gainsaying that the region is better off even with its faltering efforts at economic conglomeration. The assumption, therefore: the deeper the integration, the greater the benefit.

The issue here, though, is that there is no clear definition of what this proposed political union is to look like, although it is to be launched in 2013. Defining the process is the job of Dr Vaughn Lewis, former politician, academic and technocrat, and the Trinidadian diplomat, Cuthbert Joseph. We expect, however, the more likely route to a union will start with a loose confederation, with benchmarks towards a firmer federal structure.

As a precursor to the union, Trinidad and Tobago is to join the seven-member Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States (OECS) by 2011, which makes sense. But Port-of-Spain's ascension to the OECS brings issues. The OECS states already share a currency, a central bank and judiciary, and several other institutions. They are down the road towards the kind of integration that Trinidad and Tobago wants to pursue. Sequencing, therefore, could become a matter for debate.

Economic power

Port-of-Spain, with its oil revenues and strong industrial base, is the region's economic powerhouse. The economies of its prospective partners struggle. Harmonising macroeconomic variables will be a potentially complex and contentious issue in a single economic and political space.

The major potential upshot for these economies, though, is what Caricom has failed to deliver: a clear process for governance of decision making. Political union will maximise the efficiency of Trinidadian capital and OECS skills in a broader, seamless east Caribbean market.

All this does not preclude the participation of non-union members of Caricom, a community of sovereign nations whose leaders, only in July, underlined the notion of its 'variable geometry'.

The late Barbadian leader Tom Adams once remarked, in Kingston, that prior to the break up of the West Indies Federation in 1962, he had advised the federal premier, Sir Grantley Adams, to give Jamaica 'anything it wants' for it to stay in. Kingston was so important.

Jamaica does not now occupy such position, but will find value in Caricom, particularly if it finds a coherent mix of economic policies. This ought to be Mr Golding's primary goal.