International and Regional Organizations
International and Regional Organizations
International and Regional Organizations
(GOVT 2048)
Introduction
The Caribbean Region, multilateral and fascinating, captures the attention of nearly anyone who
dares to take a closer inspection. Its rich history and beautiful culture take you in, unveiling the
heights to which it can accelerate while giving insight into how low, the community can get.
In an effort to ensure the Caribbean continues to peak, organizations such as CARICOM AND
OECS are driving forces behind regional integration and the idea of regionalism in the
Caribbean.
CARICOM
The Caribbean Community and Common Market (CARICOM) was established by the Treaty of Chaguaramas,
which was signed by Barbados, Jamaica, Guyana and Trinidad & Tobago and came into effect on August 1, 1973.
It was built on the trials and errors of previous unification efforts, beginning with the ambitious West Indies
Federation (1958-62), which sought political and economic unification. Despite encouragement from Great
Britain, it dissolved rapidly when Jamaica and Trinidad and Tobago withdrew in favour of national self-
determination. In the midst of the failure to federate, the hope, if not the necessity, of economic integration
remained alive and took a new form in 1965 with the Caribbean Free Trade Association (CARIFTA). It marked the
beginning of a free trade area and was replaced five years later by a deeper commitment under CARICOM
(Hornebeck , 2008)
The CARICOM countries decided in 1989 to further integrate their economies, and in this regard prepared the
Revised Treaty of Chaguaramas establishing CARICOM Single Market and Economy (CSME), which was signed
in 2001 (Haughton, 2010).
CARICOM gets its funding through the contributions by each member state as well as grants and aid , the
CARICOM Development Fund, donations from others through projects and Regional Institutions like the
Caribbean Examination Council.
CARICOM Governance and Structure
Structure of OECS members of the Houses of Parliament and Legislatures of the Member
States. Each Independent Member State of the Organisation elects five
members of its Parliament to the Assembly while Non-Independent
States are entitled to three members.
It's important to note that while the CSME provides for the free movement of certain categories of people, there are still
administrative and regulatory requirements that may apply, such as the need for professional accreditation or licensing.
Additionally, each member state has the right to implement specific immigration and security measures in the interest of
public safety.
The success and effectiveness of free movement within CARICOM can vary among member states, and challenges may
arise from time to time, but the overall aim is to promote regional integration and economic growth through the facilitated
movement of people and services.
Caricom and OECS
CARICOM and OECS share similar objectives in expanding growth in the Caribbean. While both were born out
of the West Indies Federation, CARICOM takes a more diplomatic approach in the international arena. This is
recognized in their policies and efforts made to strengthen international ties with more developed states. The
OECS, on the other hand, is more region-focused. The OECS has recently been successful in fostering deeper
integration (Schipke et al., n.d.). Schipke et al. (n.d.), further explain that over time it is conceivable that further
areas of competence will become the purview of the subregion, rather than national governments. Hence, OECS
integrating at a deeper level than CARICOM.
However, the rationale for CARICOM has always been grounded on the fact that Caribbean countries are at a
natural disadvantage in regard to size, geography and global reach. CARICOM’s main purposes are to promote
economic integration and cooperation among its members, ensure that integration benefits are equitably shared,
and coordinate foreign policy (Chand, 2014).
Separate from that, both organizations seek to grow their economies and their civil society though free
movement, technology, education and the environment development .
In recent years the world has witnessed a proliferation of regional integration mechanisms at all levels of
political-economic interaction. These may take the shape of formal processes of ongoing political integration
encompassing many states or looser bi- or pluri-lateral trade agreements with varying objectives, levels of
institutionalisation, capacity, and political support.
Moreover, this changes over time as some institutions become dated and others come into vogue. Nonetheless,
increasingly there are significant numbers of overlapping institutions in the world, such that they have been
likened to a ‘spaghetti bowl’, the implication being that their range and complexity – and concomitant lack of
clarity and transparency – outweighs the positives of such agreements. In the case of the Caribbean, just a
cursory consideration of the institutions with which it is directly involved or indirectly related to/influenced by
is instructive.
CARICOM still remains – for now at least - the default institution of regional governance, or, as we put it
earlier, the ‘umbrella’ for specifically Caribbean integration. In terms of comparison, the EU provides the most
obvious candidate since it is the most advanced and successful of all regional integration movements.
Moreover, it has been the standard bearer for those processes around the world – such as the CSME – which
have attempted to foster a single market based upon full liberalisation and economic integration.
As a major trading partner of the OECS region, the EU is one of the leading markets for the region‘s
exports of agricultural produce. From 2000-2006, OECS exports to the EU averaged USD$83 million, of
which roughly 28% were agricultural products. For some countries, this ratio is significantly higher.
While exports of food and live animals only accounted for 11% of St. Vincent-EU trade, they accounted
for over 70% of total exports to the EU from St. Lucia, Grenada and St. Kitts.
EU-CARICOM trade has been directed by a series of agreements which provide tariff-free access for
OECS goods entering the EU. Specifically, the WTO GSP allows for the region to be granted preferential
treatment under the Most Favoured Nation (MFN) provisions. Through a series of legal waivers, a
network of non-reciprocal preferences also allowed tariff-free access for most of CARICOM‘s goods
entering the EU market and these had been maintained under successive WTO trade rounds of Lomé I
through IV (1976-2000) and their successor, the Cotonou Agreement (2000-2007).
Given the perceived vulnerability of the small, open economies of the OECS to fluctuations in trade
patterns and their dependence on foreign exchange earnings from exports, it is critical that their
advantages are identified and exploited. As such, the current research will provide a useful indicator of the
sources of trade advantage in the OECS sub-region vis-à-vis the EU and will offer policymakers a useful
tool for determining the most efficient allocation of resources across the region.
Reference