The Caribbean Single Market and Economy (CSME): The International Environment and Options for CARICOM and the OECS Countries

• Author: Prof. Vaughan A. Lewis
• Pages: 24-34

24 CARICOM Options: Towards Full Integration Into the World Economy

Establishing the CSME: The International Context

It is now 13 years since the Heads of Government finalized arrangements

to establish the CARICOM Single Market and Economy (CSME). This

decision of 1992 followed an initial commitment to the CSME three years

earlier in 1989 (the Grande Anse Declaration), when another decision was

also taken – the appointment of a West Indian Commission under Sir Shridath

Ramphal, to advise on the future of the integration movement itself.

The West Indian Commission having reported, the Heads took a number

of other decisions really concerned with providing a new institutional

framework for the functioning of the Caribbean Community, for ensuring the

timely implementation of its decisions, and for providing the Community

with appropriate machinery for undertaking economic negotiations with the

rest of the world, and particularly with the European Union.

No decision such as this could evolve in a vacuum, or in an environment

created solely by ourselves. The decision to establish the CSME took place

in a particular context. First, the recognition by CARICOM governments

that in the face of the process of international trade and economic liberalization

that was proceeding apace in the world at large, the tariff-laden protectionist

structure which shielded our Common Market would have to be dismantled.

Secondly, that the adoption by many CARICOM governments of the

IMF/World Bank Washington Consensus principles and programmes of

structural adjustment, had led to an opening of their economies for which the

Common Market rules were too restrictive.

THE CARIBBEAN SINGLE MARKET

AND ECONOMY (CSME):

The International Environment and Options for

CARICOM and the OECS Countries 1

Professor Vaughan A. Lewis

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