Lessons from across the Atlantic

To stem the protracted crisis in the eurozone, boost jobs and promote growth, last week the European Commission put forward a set of new proposals, in the form of its Single Market Act II. The aim is to make it easier for people and businesses to move and do business within the European Union. This new act has four aims: to foster mobility of people and businesses across borders; facilitate access to finance in the 27 member states of the EU; bolster social entrepreneurship and improve consumer confidence. It follows Act I, adopted in April 2011. Its key actions are currently being discussed by the European Parliament and a few of them will be in place by the end of 2012.

We commend this move as it shows, yet again, the European Union’s political commitment to the ongoing development of its single market – its main economic engine – so that its citizens can derive maximum benefit from the free movement of goods, services, capital and people. Despite its complex institutional structure, lengthy bureaucracy and business having to be conducted in 23 official languages, the European Union is able to identify its challenges, plan to confront them, discuss viable options and implement steps to make it easier to live, work and do business.

We recommend that a similar approach be used within the context of the Caribbean Single Market and Economy to foster greater regional economic cooperation and development in an ever dynamic global framework. An ‘ever closer union’ in the Caribbean appears elusive but it should be simple enough given the circumstances. Unlike the countries of the European Union, Caribbean countries were never pitted against each other in conflict and bloodshed and there are, for the time being, at most two official languages for the 12 full members of the regional bloc. For the most part, because of our ancestry and colonial past, our cultures are very similar.

And so we ask, what is the problem? But perhaps that is the problem – the lack of any major regional challenges that produce the deep rifts and deadly cleavages that would spur the political will for swift action to be taken to ensure the very survival of the region – through social and economic interdependency. Even now, unfair trading practices still exist within the bloc: a prime example of this surfacing earlier this year with Trinidad blocking the entry into their market of Barbados’ Pine Hill Dairy milk and juices for frivolous stated reasons. It is examples like this that prove that Caribbean countries are still not thinking or operating like a single economic bloc that is a force to be reckoned with on the global scene … and to our detriment.

But beyond that, the same lack of political will seen at the regional level can be seen at the individual government level. Amid global economic challenges, would the goal not be to foster growth, attract foreign direct investment wherever possible and create employment? The focus should be on developing viable and necessary time-bound plans to facilitate foreign investment. The next logical step is the implementation of those plans, but the best of efforts are often thwarted by burdensome bureaucracy.

Yet, the rhetoric continues at the individual government and the regional summit level. Only when we become serious about conducting business with each other at the regional level and about consistently attracting investment to our shores can we hope to move to the next level in our economic development. But for that to happen, the lofty rhetoric must be backed by concrete action.