Caribbean integration movement – Pt 1

AT THE end of this lesson, students should be able to highlight the various stages of regional integration within the Caribbean and briefly outline their functions.

Greetings again, everyone. Welcome to another lesson that outlines the history of our Caribbean as it relates to the unification process. Below is a timeline illustrating the many attempts of regional integration.

A simple definition for regional integration is the unification of states through economic, social and political agreements. Many attempts have been made to pull Caribbean countries together in the areas of trade, commerce, government and other regional affairs. The purpose of regional integration is to achieve economic gains through free trade flow and investments between neighbouring countries, often by lowering or eliminating tariffs against imports from fellow member countries.

The first attempt at regional integration in the Commonwealth Caribbean was through the formation of the West Indies Federation on January 3, 1958. As posited by CARICOM’s website, the West Indies Federation comprised the 10 territories of: Antigua and Barbuda, Barbados, Dominica, Grenada, Jamaica, Montserrat, the then St Kitts-Nevis-Anguilla, St Lucia, St Vincent, and Trinidad and Tobago. The federation was established by the British Caribbean Federation Act of 1956, with the aim of establishing a political union among its members. The federal government was headed by an executive governor general, appointed by Britain, and included:

A prime minister elected from among and by the members of the House of Representatives.

A Cabinet, comprising the prime minister and 10 other elected members chosen by him.

With the federation’s capital located in Trinidad and Tobago, the prime minister at the time was Sir Grantley Adams of Barbados, while Lord Hailes of Britain served as the governor general. During the federation’s brief existence (195862), a number of fundamental issues were debated with a view to strengthening it. Among these were direct taxation by the federal government, central planning for development, establishment of a Regional Customs Union and reform of the federal constitution.

The issue of direct taxation was particularly controversial. The federation was not permitted to levy (impose) income tax for at least the first five years of its life. Added to this were the greatly differing positions among the territories with respect to how other federal taxes should be levied. In addition, the Federation began quickly to seek to establish federal institutions and supporting structures. It created a federal civil service, established the West Indies Shipping Service (in 1962) to operate two multipurpose ships – the Federal

Maple and the Federal Palm – donated to it by the government of Canada. It had embarked also on negotiations to acquire the subsidiary of the British Overseas Airways Corporation, namely British West Indies Airways ( caricom.

org). Cooperation in tertiary education was consolidated and expanded during this period. The then University College of the West Indies, which was established in 1948 with one campus at Mona, Jamaica, opened its second campus at St Augustine, Trinidad and Tobago, in 1960. The federation, however, faced several problems. These included: the governance and administrative structures imposed by the British; disagreements among the territories over policies, particularly with respect to taxation and central planning; an unwillingness on the part of most territorial governments to give up power to the Federal government; and the location of the federal capital.

The decisive development which led to the demise of the Federation was the withdrawal of Jamaica – the largest member – after conducting a national referendum in 1961 on its continued participation in the arrangement. The results of the referendum showed majority support in favour of withdrawing from the federation. This was to lead to a movement within Jamaica for national independence from Britain. It also led to the renowned statement of Eric Williams, then premier of Trinidad and Tobago, who exclaimed that “One from 10 leaves nought”, referring to the withdrawal of Jamaica and signifying and justifying his decision to withdraw Trinidad and Tobago from the federal arrangement a short while later. The federation, therefore, collapsed in January 1962.

CARIBBEAN FREE TRADE ASSOCIATION

After the West Indian Federation failed at creating a single independent state among the Caribbean islands, many governments in the region thought that it was critical to continue collaborating with neighbouring islands by having some form of economic linkage. In 1965, a trade bloc known as the Caribbean Free Trade Association (CARIFTA) was formed by four islands (Antigua and Barbuda, Barbados, Guyana and Trinidad and Tobago) through the signing of the Dickenson Bay Agreement, in order to continue economic integration. Other islands joined the free-trade area shortly, after seeing the potential benefits of increasing trade with each other.

The increase in trade came as a result of reductions in tariffs on imports coming from other islands participating in the free-trade agreement ( investopedia.

com). This caused some issues, as many Caribbean islands were heavily dependent on revenue generated from tariffs and, as a result, governments in the region were not too keen on removing nor reducing their trade barriers. This ultimately resulted in CARIFTA being short-lived. However, it did provide a foundation for the formation of the Caribbean Community and Common Market (CARICOM), which still exists today.

THE CARIBBEAN COMMUNITY AND COMMON MARKET

In 1973, through the Treaty of Chaguaramas, CARICOM was established mainly because of countries such as Jamaica, Barbados, Guyana and Trinidad and Tobago. As outlined by the Jamaica Information Service, CARICOM’s main purposes are to promote economic integration and cooperation among its members, to ensure that the benefits of integration are equitably shared, and to coordinate foreign policy.

The objectives of CARICOM are:

To improve standards of living and work.

The full employment of labour and other factors of production.

Accelerated, coordinated and sustained economic development and convergence.

Expansion of trade and economic relations with third states.

Enhanced levels of international competitiveness.

Organisation for increased production and productivity.

Achievement of a greater measure of economic leverage.

Effectiveness of member states in dealing with third states, groups of States and entities of any description.

The enhanced coordination of member states’ foreign and foreign economic policies and enhanced functional cooperation.

That’s it for this week’s lesson. We will continue next week on the same topic.