Jan 2006 Financial News

Caribbean economic trade bloc takes partial effect

Jan 03, 2006

BRIDGETOWN, Barbados (AP) - Caribbean leaders yesterday welcomed the start of a free trade zone designed to allow goods, services and skilled workers to move more easily throughout the region.

Six nations - Jamaica, Barbados, Belize, Guyana, Suriname and Trinidad and Tobago - became the first full members of the Caribbean Single Market and Economy as the treaty went into effect January 1 for those nations that have completed the legal steps to participate in the trade accord.

"To put together a single market and economy is a historic thing," said Prime Minister Owen Arthur of Barbados, one of the strongest advocates of a trade accord that supporters say will make the Caribbean nations more competitive in an era of free trade.

Edwin Carrington, secretary-general of the 15-member Caribbean Community, said the trade agreement is "an important psychological and political step for this region" even though less than half the membership was ready to enter the trade accord by January 1.

"I feel pleased we have reached this stage," Carrington told the Barbados Sunday Sun. "I would have been extremely pleased if we had all countries on board, but I understand that in life things don't always go the way we want them to."

Another six nations of the 15-member Caribbean Community will join the single economy by the end of March,
Trinadadian Prime Minister Patrick Manning said yesterday.

The British territory of Montserrat, which is also a member of the Caribbean Community, is seeking permission from the United Kingdom to become a part of the single market.

Haiti has been suspended from the Caribbean Community because of its political turmoil and won't join the market, while the Bahamas won't join because of local opposition to a provision of the trade accord that allows skilled workers to move more easily among nations.

Under the trade accord, the governments lift tariffs among participating members, and all citizens can open businesses, provide services and move capital throughout the single market without restrictions. The governments will also replace national travel documents with a regional passport by 2007.

Member nations will have access to bilateral free-trade agreements that the Caribbean Community has already made with Colombia, Cuba, Costa Rica, the Dominican Republic, and Venezuela.

"This really gives the business community something to aim for. It is a huge market available to us," said David Lord, a single market expert with the Guyana-based Caribbean Community Secretariat.

Caribbean prime ministers will inaugurate the single trading market at a ceremony in Kingston, Jamaica on January 23.
"I don't know if the region is poised for growth. I don't know if the situation will get better. I can only be optimistic for the future," said Rushalee Mitchell, 23, a University of the West Indies student in Jamaica.

The Jamaica Observer
Tuesday, 3rd January, 2006
http://www.jamaicaobserver.com/news/html/20060102T230000-0500_95866_OBS_CARIBBEAN_ECONOMIC_TRADE_BLOC_TAKES_PARTIAL_EFFECT.asp