Dominica’s announced decision to sign on to ALBA-the Bolivarian Alternative for the Americas-has been the subject of some media comment because of its supposed undermining of Caricom. However, this is by no means the first time that a Caricom member state has acted in a way that might be at variance with its regional commitments and responsibilities. Back in the early 1990s Jamaica and Trinidad and Tobago each acted unilaterally in attempting to qualify for ‘NAFTA Parity’ treatment by the United States by signing certain bilateral economic treaties with that country. I don’t hear people talking about that.
Later in the 1990s several countries also broke ranks with their regional counterparts by negotiating separately with the US on the infamous ‘Shiprider’ agreements; and still later (2002) the equally infamous agreements to grant immunity for US personnel from prosecution under the International Criminal Court.
These were egregious examples of failure to follow a unified Caricom policy and I don’t hear people talking about that either. Then there was Trinidad and Tobago’s agreement on an FTA with Costa Rica and Guyana’s with Brazil in the early 2000s, both of which, if my memory serves me right, were eventually disallowed by COTED. Not to speak of the fact that Caricom states do not follow a unified policy with respect to the world’s most populous country, which is set to soon become the world’s largest economy. Some countries have even switched from a ‘two-China’ to a ‘one-China’ policy and then back again. Talk about Caribbean bacchanal!
As far back as 1989, the Caricom Heads of Government in the Grand Anse Declaration, agreed to establish joint diplomatic representation in foreign capitals. This decision, it can be said, is ‘more honoured in the breach than in the observance’. Although even the largest Caricom country clearly lacks the financial and human resource capacity to maintain an effective-as distinct from a nominal-presence in the major capitals, each prefers to ‘do its own thing’ (the OECS being a partial exception to this). Thus, Jamaica has its own separate representation in Beijing, Trinidad and Tobago in Pretoria, and Guyana in Brasilia.
The substantive issue here is the continuing need for Caricom states to forge themselves into a cohesive unit; one endowed with organs of governance that have real teeth; and that follows a consistent, unified political and economic policy vis-
