As Trinidadian Prime Minister Patrick Manning discusses economic and political integration with some of his colleagues, President Bharrat Jagdeo has said that Guyana would have to see the model being proposed and consultations held before any commitment is made.
Jagdeo told the media at a press conference held at the Office of the President on Thursday that he has told Manning that he has to see the technical work done and what model of political union was being proposed before he makes any commitment.
He said there are different models including a federation, confederation or “a union with the union responsible for some aspects of community policy and or national states or member states retaining jurisdiction over other kinds of policies.”
Manning called him several times on this matter, he said, and invited him to attend the meeting of some other Caribbean leaders, particularly from the Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States in Trinidad and Tobago last week but he could not attend.
He said he delegated Minister of Foreign Affairs Carolyn Rodrigues-Birkett to attend and indicated to Manning that she was attending the meeting basically to observe the proceedings but she could not make any commitment at that stage because Guyana was yet to see the model being proposed. In addition there was no time in which the issue had been discussed in Guyana.
He was withholding his judgment on any of the issues, he said, until he had the chance to study the technical work, some of which he said Manning told him was being done by former St Lucian prime minister, Professor Vaughn Lewis.
In the meantime, he said it would be premature to speak definitively on Guyana’s participation in any political union before the technical work was completed and national discussions were held.
Last week at Manning’s invitation, St Lucia’s Prime Minister Stephenson King, Prime Minister Ralph Gonsalves of St Vincent and the Grenadines, and Grenada’s Prime Minister Tillman Thomas along with Rodrigues-Birkett, Barbados Minister of Foreign Affairs Chris Sinckler, Caricom Secretary General Edwin Carrington and the Director of the OECS met to discuss the new thrust towards economic and political integration.
Coming out of that meeting was a joint communiqué which said that the meeting had taken note of the difficulties which have arisen in progressing towards the establishment of the Caribbean Single Economy and the decision of the OECS to establish an economic union by 2009.
“The Prime Ministers of Grenada, St. Lucia, St. Vincent and the Grenadines and Trinidad and Tobago signed a Joint Declaration to establish a framework for closer cooperation towards the achievement of the single economy by 2011 and appropriate political integration by 2013,” the communiqué said.
“The Prime Ministers and Foreign Ministers also resolved that no initiative associated with the implementation of this Joint Declaration would undermine the Single Market or economic cohesion established by the Revised Treaty of Chaguaramas.
“Participation in this framework is open to all Member States of the Caribbean Community wishing to commit to the achievement of the single economy and appropriate political integration within indicative timeframes,” the communiqué said.
It noted that former St. Lucia prime minister and former University of the West Indies senior lecturer, Professor Lewis, and Trinidad and Tobago diplomat Dr. Cuthbert Joseph had been “mandated to prepare a study by the end of 2008 regarding achieving the modalities which have been set.”
“The Joint Declaration is a statement of intent, which is subject to ratification by the respective Cabinets and the duties identified are purely indicative,” said the communiqué. Meanwhile, a release issued by the Communications Unit of the Office of the Prime Minister of St Kitts and Nevis on Thursday said that Manning and Thomas were in Basseterre to sell the idea of a new economic union to St Kitts and Nevis Prime Minister Dr Denzil Douglas.
In Basseterre, Manning told reporters that the arrangement in no way prejudices the OECS arrangements but in fact preserves it and by going towards an economic union first, they were also advancing the Caricom agenda towards a Caricom Single Economy by 2015.
He noted the OECS objective of an economic union by 2009 and T&T’s desire to be part of an economic union with the OECS by 2011.
