Barbados Prime Minister Freundel Stuart
BRIDGETOWN, Barbados, Tuesday June 23, 2015 – Ahead of next month’s Caribbean Community (CARICOM) Heads of Government meeting, the prime minister with lead responsibility for the CARICOM Single Market and Economy (CSME) is suggesting that while the Single Economy element has been challenging to implement, the Single Market component is on track.
Barbados’ Prime Minister Freundel Stuart said that, for the most part, mechanisms for creating an environment where goods, services and capital can move freely across the region and the establishment of businesses through the Caribbean facilitated, have been put in place.
“There are always a few remaining things to be done, in particular the Contingent Rights for people who establish businesses in respective countries. That has caused a few challenges because of differences in our legislation and the kind of inequalities between countries in the region at different levels of development. Therefore, the rights that one country might be able to give easily, do not come as easily to countries less resourced; so we are still trying to plough our way through that, ” he said.
Stuart said the Single Economy was a little more challenging because it would require a harmonized customs environment.
“A single economy where there are different taxation regimes in the individual units would create a lot of problems because the scope for playing off one country against the other would continue. We would need to harmonize our companies’ legislation so that there is a sense of being able to do business anywhere or being able to live anywhere and not feel you are disadvantaged by country ‘A’ or ‘B’,” he said.
Stuart added that the challenges of implementing the Single Economy were compounded when the 2007 global economic crisis affected the region.
He noted that countries were still trying to come out of economic difficulties and acknowledged that some were in International Monetary Fund programmes, while others were trying to meet certain targets to ensure their situation did not deteriorate.
“So, within the context of those realities, countries have tended to be more inward looking than outward looking towards pursuing the goal of the Single Economy. It doesn’t mean that we have abandoned it, but we have had to face reality,” the Barbadian leader said.
However, he pointed out that CARICOM had set up a Commission on the Economy in an effort to reach common understanding on how the governments could get their economies back on track.
Barbados will host the 36th Regular Meeting of CARICOM heads from July 2 to 4, under the theme ‘CARICOM: Vibrant Societies: Resilient Economies’.