CARICOM can benefit from members' pacts with regional blocs -Maraj Stabroek News January 27, 2000 How relevant will CARICOM's economic integration be in a truly liberalised world economy? This was one question asked by Trinidad and Tobago's Minister of Foreign Affairs, Ralph Maraj, during an address at the Foreign Service Institute yesterday morning. Maraj suggested that the future of CARICOM, although not referring to any particular country, depended on policy decisions that allowed "strong states to become stronger... the better to be able to help the weak," warning that "we should not be shackled to mediocrity." He noted that industrialised powerhouses have and continue to marginalise the weak developing nations. CARICOM must also move to fuller integration with regional economic blocs such as the Andean Community and MERCOSUR, Maraj said, adding that this could be done by individual countries creating bilateral pacts thus paving the way for CARICOM. Trinidad has been aiming do this with both MERCOSUR and NAFTA. However, he did raise the question of whether the regional integration process would be displaced by globalisation and whether the CARICOM Single Market and Economy would become obsolete with the realisation of the Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA). Conversely, would the North American Free Trade Area (NAFTA) or the European Union's Common Agricultural Policy be dismantled in the face of trade liberalisation? There is no clear direction on these questions, Maraj said and until there is a measure of equity and justice in world trade, regional integration should continue apace. It may be possible for smaller regional blocks to subsist within larger trade groupings and Maraj suggested that eventually the only way to successfully negotiate with larger trading blocs such as NAFTA will be through alliances with "building blocs" in Central and South America. CARICOM must find the confidence to integrate now otherwise any future agreements might be imposed. Maraj, who was here on a brief visit for trade talks and to inaugurate a high-level bilateral commission, discussed the many reasons for regional integration which can be economic, political or because of shared cultures. He said that for small countries cooperation was vital in areas of diplomacy and trade negotiations. He cited the example of the transshipment of nuclear waste through the Caribbean Sea and how a united voice has called (unsuccessfully) for its cessation. At question time, Director of the Foreign Service Institute, Lloyd Searwar, agreed that CARICOM should look to move foreign policy centre stage and offered that some of CARICOM's original objectives in terms of rapid industrialisation had been misplaced. Maraj said that he believed that differing levels of economic development had hampered a fuller integration of CARICOM. The perennial question of why there was still no free movement of CARICOM nationals was also raised. The lecture concluded with members of the private sector trade delegation from Trinidad and Tobago, whom their foreign minister had praised for their "aggression", rising to preach the gospel of open markets to the invitees, despite Maraj's admission that years of protection had "incubated our private sector" up until the early nineties. A © page from: Guyana: Land of Six Peoples