The quest for regional integration in the Caribbean – successes and challenges

18/09/2011
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Presentation at the ECLAC Caribbean Development Round Table held in Port of Spain on September 13, 2011
 
The limitations of small size have been the main motive for economic integration initiatives in the Anglophone Caribbean.
 
However, there have always been extra-economic motives for the broader project of regional integration. These include (i) attaining national independence (WI Federation), (ii) sharing the costs of common services and functional cooperation, (iv) pooling bargaining power in international fora and (iv) affirming a common West Indian identity.
 
Economic integration initiatives over the past 60 years have progressed from (i) a failed attempt at Customs Union under the WI Federation (50s), to (ii) a partial free trade agreement in the 1960s, (iii) another failed attempt at Customs Union in the 1970s and 1980s with the establishment of the Caribbean Community and Common market (Caricom); this included provisions for joint agricultural and industrial development and the harmonisation of incentives, and (iv) the current drive to create a so-called ‘single market and economy’ (CSME), starting around 1989.
 
https://www.alainet.org/es/node/152676
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