Thread: Caribbean Community updata/news and info

OECS moving closer to economic union


Thursday, 24 May 2007
Another step towards an EU-style economic union is expected at this year's OECS summit being held in Grenada starting today.


It's been on the drawing board for several years in one form or another but now the leaders of the Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States appear committed to take it further.


If it's realised an economic union will be a major step forward for the sub-regional grouping which was established in 1981 to promote 'functional cooperation' among its member states.


OECS officials also say if they succeed in setting up the economic union it could be a forerunner for a similar undertaking for the wider Caribbean Community grouping, Caricom, which also includes OECS states.


The OECS is a nine-member grouping comprising Antigua and Barbuda, Dominica, Grenada, Montserrat, St Kitts and Nevis, St Lucia and St Vincent and the Grenadines.


Anguilla and the British Virgin Islands are associate members.


At this year's summit in Grenada the leaders of the nine full members and two associate members of the sub regional grouping are will review ongoing work for the creation of the economic union - that includes a draft treaty.


They are also looking at revising the remit of their overseas diplomatic representation to focus more on economic matters, common positions in international affairs and attracting investors.


An assessment of the recently-ended Cricket World Cup, the Petro-Caribe deal with Venezuela and global trade negotiations are also on the agenda for the two day meeting which ends on Friday.


The summit will be chaired by Dominica's Prime Minister Roosevelt Skerrit, who takes over the rotating role for the next year from Antigua's Baldwin Spencer.

http://www.cbc.bb/content/view/10943/45/

| PRINTER FRIENDLY FORMAT | EMAIL STORY
Towards one Caricom currency
Published on: 5/22/07.


IT WOULD have come as a breath of fresh air for committed regionalists to hear a serving Central Bank governor of the Caribbean Community publicly articulating the necessity for CARICOM to press ahead with arrangements for the introduction of a common currency.



Dr Marion Williams, Governor of the Barbados Central Bank, chose the moment of the bank's recent 35th anniversary lecture to do just that.

She also pointed to an undesirable consequence if the region fails to speedily move in the direction of a unified currency which, of necessity, requires harmonised fiscal policies.

As she told it, the alternative would be the United States dollar emerging as the default common currency of CARICOM states, a development that should be collectively avoided in our quest to achieve a seamless regional economy.

The governor argued the compelling reasons for the emergence of a common currency in CARICOM, now in its 33rd year of existence, and stressed the advantages to accrue, such as regional transactions would no longer require foreign exchange.

"This," she said, "is the single most important area in which regional gains and national gains coincide, an area in which all can benefit . . . ."

What is particularly significant in Dr Williams' call is that it conforms to the thinking of a number of her past and current colleagues of central banks within CARICOM. But she seems sufficiently persuaded to go public at this time with the message for new emphasis to be placed on the implementation strategy for monetary co-operation with a unified currency very much in mind.

Following the published work of two former deputy central bank governors (Barbados' DeLisle Worrell and Trinidad and Tobago's Terrence Farrell) on Caribbean Monetary Ingtegration, there were various reports, including one from a Central Bank Task Force, on monetary union and currency convertibility.

CARICOM leaders were to subsequently mandate the region's central bank governors to function as a standing advisory committee on monetary integration with arrangments for a common currency unit within the context of the CARICOM Single Market and Economy.

Little is known of the work of these central bank governors whose ideas and recommendations would normally flow in the direction of the Community's ministers of finance, a number of them also heads of government.

Now that all heads of government are armed with the recently endorsed report, Towards A Single Economy And Single Development Vision, authored by Dr Norman Girvan, which addresses also the case for pursuing the creation of a monetary union, it is to be expected that new initiatives may be announced prior to or during the forthcoming CARICOM summit scheduled for Barbados in July.

http://www.nationnews.com/editorial/310262568902902.php