Patterson says Caribbean should not fear the C.S.M.E.
He will be giving a major address tonight at the Bliss before being honoured with the Order of Belize. But this afternoon News Five’s Stewart Krohn sat down with former Jamaican Prime Minister P.J. Patterson for an extensive interview to be aired in the Caribbean. Among the many topics discussed was the implementation of the Caribbean Single Market and Economy. For Patterson the C.S.M.E. is the product of a very carefully negotiated process and CARICOM nations should not fear the economic integration that it brings.
P.J. Patterson, Former Prime Minister of Jamaica
?The C.S.M.E. has now come into existence and it?s going to be in two very distinct phases. In the first instance everyone has now signed on to the single market. Work has to be advanced on the single economy before that can come into being, three or four years time. So when I am responding I am really dealing for the moment with the single market aspect and not the single economy, which is a stage which we have yet to reach. So far as the single market is concerned we have spent a great deal of time in the Caribbean community. Negotiating nine separate protocols between 1989, when the decision was first taken by CARICOM?s heads of government in Gran Anse, Grenada, and when we signed the amended Treaty of Chaguaramas in the Bahamas in 2001. Despite all the efforts at public education, one must concede that a part from those who have been closely involved there is not yet a wide spread understanding of why the C.S.M.E., what it embraces and what are the measures which are designed to promote economic integration, and yet at the same time ensure that the whole exercise is done in an orderly fashion, and does not provoke or insight situations with which we cannot cope. I refer particularly to the fear that there will be mass migration. Firstly, we have confined the free movement of labour to certain particular categories: professionals, people in the field of arts and culture, people in the news media and persons with tertiary degrees from approved institutions. They are many who say that has not gone far enough, and indeed very cognizant of that the leaders of CARICOM have been seeking what are the areas in which further expansions can be permitted within an orderly system.?
?Perhaps it is worthwhile mentioning that there are some people who in a sense have been operating as though we are in a single market even before it came into being. I will mention two groups by way of example. Firstly, the persons who are variously described as hucksters, higglers and informal commercial traders, call them what you will, they have been moving around the Caribbean selling goods and indulging in commercial activities in the various states. I think the C.S.M.E. legitimizes that kind of activity and perhaps is just catching up where we should have been legally. There are of course migrant workers, but people don?t go to places searching for work where the opportunities have not yet been identified, previous to their arrival. So that, you are going to find where particular skills are required, whether they be in the construction area?and a lot of construction is taking place all over the Caribbean at this time. Even the largest of us in terms of physical size, Jamaica, is having an expansion boom that we are running short of skilled labour. What is happening in Trinidad and Tobago? What is happening in the Bahamas? Although it is not yet formally a member of the single market, but there is going to be the need for the movement of skilled personnel and the persons in particular fields of endeavour from time to time. I have not included in the presentation so far our sportsmen whether in cricket, in football and in athletics there needs to be greater interchange. And the other distinct area in which the people engage are far ahead of us is in entertainment. You would find our singers and those involved in the cultural arena appearing all over the Caribbean from time to time.?
?I don?t think there is any real fear of a mass displacement of nationals in their own country even in respect of professionals. But I think we have to recognize that in the world of today we are not jus competing with each other we are competing with the rest of the world and whether it be in the field of medicine or even in law or in accountancy or in engineering or in architecture it is possible to access skills and services from any part of the world, even without those people actually entering the country. It is being done on the internet. When you need accounts done, you don?t have to employ someone locally or regionally even, so what we are seeking to do is to make sure that we pull and make available our best skills to serve the regional needs. That is where we must begin, and you can?t operate in a competitive global environment simply by restrictive measures, because professional skills are going to move where they are needed and what you want to ensure is that in any field of endeavour you are on the top.?
In addition to tonight’s public appearance at the Bliss, Patterson will make a brief stop at Friday’s children’s Rally at the Belize City Centre.
