CARICOM: From Community to Single Market and Economy

• Author: Havelock Brewster
• Pages: 499-508

Caricom: From Community to Single Market & Economy 499

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The provisions of the CARICOM Single Market and Economy (CSME) were

originally inscribed in nine Protocols (1989/1992) to The Treaty of

Chaguaramas Establishing the Caribbean Community (1973). That Treaty has

since been amended to incorporate those Protocols and is formally designated

The Revised Treaty of Chaguaramas Including the CARICOM Single Market and

Economy. The areas the Protocols covered were: establishment, services and

capital; industrial policy; trade policy; agricultural policy; transport policy;

disadvantaged countries, regions and sectors; competition policy and consumer

protection; dumping and subsidies; dispute settlement. In addition,

macroeconomic policy convergence, fiscal policy harmonisation, monetary

union/single currency, as well as the Caribbean Court of Justice, complete the

mandate for implementing the CSME. The free trade regime and the common

external tariff (CET) were core features of the earlier Common Market and of

course are essential components of the CSME.

There is no provision in the Treaty for a Community Transnational Enterprise

Law, nor is there for harmonised Labor Law and Property Law, features that

would normally be expected in a single market.

This paper will review briefly the progress achieved to date under all of the

salient economic provisions that together are considered to constitute the CSME

mandate. Following this review, certain aspects of the Caribbean Community’s

approach to creating a single market and economy that have implications for its

future viability will be discussed. They include fundamental values and the

conception of a single economic space, national sovereignty, and financing the

Community institutions. This will be followed by the author’s prognosis on the

future of the CSME and related proposals that might help to advance this elusive

quest.

CARICOM: FROM COMMunITy TO

SIngle MARkeT And eCOnOMy

HAVELOCK BREWSTER

CHAPTER TWENTY - SIX