Girvan

TRINIDAD AND TOBAGO and Barbados head the list of Caribbean Community (CARICOM) member states that Minister of Industry, Investment and Commerce Karl Samuda has told to watch their step.

While these territories were specifically fingered by Samuda for their poor treatment of Jamaican products and nationals, respectively, the senior Cabinet minister intimated that other members of the regional trading bloc were also guilty of trade transgressions against Jamaica.

"Quite frankly, I tell you here and now, Trinidad is on watch, and, in fact ... all of them are on watch," Samuda told The Sunday Gleaner, while pointing out that Jamaica had been experiencing problems with Trinidad and Tobago for close to two decades.

main offenders

Local analysts have said that Trinidad and Tobago, Barbados and Belize are the main, but not the only, offenders.

Last month, it was reported that Tastee Limited, a Jamaican patty company, had been embroiled in a lengthy trade battle with Trinidad and Tobago.

The twin-island state was accused of using non-tariff barriers to block the importation of meat products from Jamaica. Trinidad and Tobago eventually released the Tastee shipment. Samuda said that the Jamaican Government would be watching keenly to see if there would be a recurrence.

The imposition of another such delay could prove to be the proverbial straw that breaks the camel's back, Samuda warned. "That's all we have to do - look at each shipment. And the next shipment, we will be looking to see the response (of) the Trinidadian authorities in dealing with our items coming into their market."

barbados' threat

Meanwhile, it was recently revealed that Barbados had threatened to round up and throw out CARICOM nationals who allegedly resided illegally in the country. Guyanese, Vincentians and Jamaicans are said to be the main targets. This, too, got Samuda hot under the collar.

"You go to Barbados and they want to know how long you are staying, and you are not allowed to stay beyond a certain time. I believe, if I am not mistaken, that next year is the year we should have free flow of nationals within the region, and then we have the nerve to say that we are on the eve of establishing a CSME. We can't even get trade right," he said.

Professor Norman Girvan also expressed concerns about the immigration saga. "Freedom of movement within the community, which should have been instituted by the end of 2008, is not in effect. Two countries, Barbados and Antigua, have now resorted to deportations of undocumented CARICOM nationals under circumstances widely reported to be discriminatory and inhumane," he said.

Girvan, professorial research fellow at the Graduate Institute of International Relations at the University of the West Indies in St Augustine, Trinidad and Tobago, said it was crunch time for CARICOM.

sacrifice needed

He admonished member states, stating that strengthening CARICOM demanded sacrifice. "Put simply: every country jealously guards the right to conduct its foreign economic relations in unilateral mode. There is an old adage that says you cannot have your cake and eat it too. If you want to deepen and strengthen CARICOM, then there are some things you will have to give up at the national level," Girvan warned.

Girvan also pointed out that in January and June of 2006, CARICOM leaders signed a 'Declaration of Single Market Compliance', which formally inaugurated the CARICOM Single Market. At the time, he said, the leaders also agreed that the essential elements of the CARICOM Single Economy would be brought into effect by the end of 2008.

"Since then, implementation of the single economy has fallen far behind schedule. What is more, some elements of the single market to which the governments were committed are now on the back burner, or even in reverse gear," Girvan said.

tyrone.reid@gleanerjm.com