The appointment of Mr Irwin LaRocque as Secretary General of the Caricom Secretariat has been generally welcomed, and we join others in that regard. But we are bound to say that since Mr LaRocque was apparently among the first list of persons recommended to heads of government by the selection committee appointed by themselves, it is difficult to see why they took so long to make an appointment. It is to be hoped that the impression has not been given by heads that having searched elsewhere for a Secretary General, Mr LaRocque was a sort of last, but by the last heads meeting, unavoidable choice. It is important that both the new Secretary General, and the staff that he will lead at the Secretariat, will be assured by the heads that he is, for them, the best choice that could be made.
On the face of it, Mr LaRocque seems adequately fitted for position, not simply because he has had, from all accounts, a record of competent performance in one of the most senior positions of the secretariat. He has also had a long experience of senior public service leadership at the national level, during which period he represented Dominica at most of the strategic meetings held by Caricom over the years, being recognized as a senior and respected adviser on regional integration to the indomitable Eugenia Charles, and then to her successors. During that period too, he came to be recognized as among the most competent of OECS public servants in the sphere of regional and international trade policy, prior to his most recent stint as Assistant Secretary General for Trade at Caricom. So he can be said to bring to the position a fairly extensive experience of intimate relations with heads of governments as well as senior ministers involved in the integration process. And in that sense too, the heads themselves have rejected the view that only one of their own (as implied in the call for the appointment of a retiring head as Secretary General as has sometimes occurred in the case of the European Union) is at this juncture suitable for the position.
So if there is any lingering doubt as to whether Mr LaRocque’s appointment will make a difference to the functioning of the secretariat or to the pace of regional integration, it may derive from a lingering concern about how he will interpret, and manoeuvre from the mandate which he has received from the heads of government, particularly if we determine this as stemming from their pronouncements at their recently concluded meeting in St Kitts and Nevis. Then, contrary to a view that there is, in principle, a seamless relationship between the Single Market and Single Economy if a balance is to be achieved or maintained between the component economies of the integration system, the heads “reiterated the importance of ensuring a fully effective and efficient Single Market” while simultaneously “reiterating their intention to review the schedule towards full implementation of the Single Economy, putting a pause on specific elements, such as the creation of a Single Currency.”
But to the extent, we are sure, that neither Mr LaRocque, nor most of the Caricom public, still dreams of a single currency for the area, would it not have been enlightening both to him and ourselves to be advised what other “specific elements” of a proposed Single Economy our governments intend should be put on pause? What about the aspects of creation of a Single Economy that are required to create a new basis, not for already existing regional cross-border industrial activities and trade and financial liberalization, but for the creation of new bases for production based on cross-country (border) economies of scale? Is it not now well recognized that the original export activities, like bananas and sugar, based on multi-country agreements with metropolitan countries, have to be replaced by an infrastructure that can support new economic activities of significant scale to facilitate competitiveness? Is it not insufficient to run around calling for recognition of the “smallness and vulnerability of our economies,” without indicating to those to whom we are appealing, that we are preparing to create scale economies for growth to minimize the “smallness” that we claim to be a hindrance to our development? Is a single currency the only, or main prerequisite for this? And if not why focus on it, rather than an element of infrastructure and production more germane to enhanced productivity and competitiveness?
And in that connection, in the midst of all the difficulties that most countries are having with both intra-regional air and sea transport, why did the heads of governments not even indicate to us that they are willing to seriously consider Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar’s suggestions in her speech at the conference that her government is willing “to cooperate to see how best” the “need for sea transport particularly of cargo can be realized” especially in the southern Caribbean? Or will they take up her indication that given the preoccupation with “reasonably priced energy” which “has occupied the minds of our Region… the proposed pipeline from Trinidad and Tobago to the Eastern Caribbean including Barbados is a project which will receive the support of my Government”?
And should heads of government not have given some consideration to the indication of concern about two aspects of Prime Minister Gonsalves’s speech for the conference (even in his absence)? The first, that “the OECS, as a bloc, has a range of issues targeted for resolution within the framework of Caricom. At the top of the pile is the reality that OECS member-states do not benefit proportionately or at all from the ‘single market’ arrangements in Caricom. Indeed, the Caricom trading regime has contributed to the denudation of the manufacturing base in the OECS without necessarily benefiting the OECS consumer in terms of competitive price and quality.” And the second, that “the next round of financing for the Caricom Development Fund… is unlikely to survive unchallenged if it continues to be too highly skewed or unequally yoked in favour of one or two of the ‘Big Four’”?
In other words, no sustainable Single Market without a Single Economy, or the elements of cross-border infrastructure that can contribute to creating a balance between what we have to buy and what we have to sell.
And so, despite the pause on selected aspects of the Single Economy, it appears that Mr LaRocque will have to patiently, and initially with some subtlety, begin to find his way through this conundrum. Two years ago (in early August of 2009), it was reported that five heads of government, composed of the heads of the Big Four and Prime Minister Gonsalves were scheduled to meet in Jamaica in preparation for meetings with the IMF, World Bank and the IDB towards the creation of a fund directed at dealing with the Caribbean’s “unique circumstances of size and vulnerability.” The problem obviously remains. One of the new SG’s tasks, will be to continue to seek to define what, to international donors, the practical, regional integration, implications are of those unique circumstances. And the implication of this is, through patient and skilfull diplomacy on the SG’s part, of a number of well-prepared inter-governmental conferences, among some governments depending on the production or cross-border infrastructure issue, that can decide on some appropriate division of labour and participation in various activities. But the prior signal and commitment must rest on the governments’ shoulders, with no excuses about the secretariat’s capabilities, or lack of them.
Finally, the new Secretary General will already, we are sure, have been pondering the operational implications, almost twenty years (bar one) after the West Indian Commission Report, of the statement of new Prime Minister Freundel Stuart in his speech to the conference, that “to sharpen our focus, there must be a whole re-ordering of the way the Caricom machinery does business, beginning with the Caricom Heads of Government” because “the governance structures of our Community are already inadequate for the task.”
In asking himself what else is new, Mr LaRocque will have to ask himself whether what is now necessary is definitely not a new commission or task force, but the courage to have some quiet and patient diplomacy (and patience is the operative word) with each head to determine first, what they really think the traffic will bear (since they are the drivers); and secondly, in what time-frame they think new arrangements can be put in place. For we suspect that from his long years as both a national and regional public servant, he well knows that the international financial and aid fraternity has most likely ceased to be interested in talk with no action about Caricom’s regional governance.
