Has CARICOM's time come and gone? Panellists review 30-yr-old entity Stabroek News December 8, 2000 In its almost 30 years of existence CARICOM has failed to create a single market, to set up a final court of appeal and to censure Suriname over the CGX rig removal, invitees to a Foreign Service Institute lecture heard on Wednesday night. At the lecture the issue of Suriname's armed removal of the CGX oil rig earlier this year, inevitably surfaced and panellist and former foreign minister Rashleigh Jackson noted that it was unlikely that CARICOM could ever have condemned a fellow member's actions. He also bluntly questioned how Guyana could have gone to CARICOM to ask for help in keeping the CGX rig in it its own waters. Dr Ian McDonald, executive director of the Sugar Association of the Caribbean, made the point that with the unanimity rule, which required unanimous approval for any resolution, it was hardly likely Suriname would have condemned itself. He added that the unanimity rule was a disaster which had been an obstacle to progressive initiatives within CARICOM. Foreign Minister Clement Rohee recalled that Guyana had sought to get the Council of Ministers to adhere to prior commitments made at a Heads of government meeting in Antigua, which discussed Suriname's introduction into CARICOM. These commitments encouraged Suriname to desist from pursuing its claims against Guyana's territory. Guyana also asked that the council deplore the use of force in resolving conflict; thirdly to get the matter tabled before the Heads of Government conference. Rohee conceded that Guyana was only successful on the third request, but that this did put in place the mechanism for the subsequent talks. As for the Venezuelan oil agreement and the remarks out of Caracas that Guyana was excluded, Jackson asked whether Guyana had always spoken out on behalf of other members citing the example of banana quotas. Solidarity was a two-way street, he said. Rohee quipped that CARICOM, perhaps in the interest of solidarity, had conveniently ignored calls for free and fair elections in Guyana during PNC rule. "It's a thing some people don't like to talk about nowadays..." The understatement of the night came from Ivor Carryl, programme manager for the CARICOM Single Market and Economy, who concluded that he was not sure CARICOM had delivered on all its promises embarked on in 1973. But he excused the organisation by saying that CARICOM was there to provide opportunities for states and it was up to the same states to take advantage of these. Dr McDonald put the failures in real terms by noting that of a Caribbean sugar market of 260,000 tonnes Guyana only had access to 60,000 tonnes and this could apply to many other commodities, including rice which were being imported from outside the region. Dr Nanda Gopaul, permanent secretary of the Public Service Ministry, added that 90% of Guyana's trade was external to CARICOM. Instead CARICOM had increasingly taken on a role of nurturing political stability in member states as witnessed by the Herdmanston Accord. Former general counsel at the CARICOM Secretariat, Bryn Pollard, SC, gave a potted history of another unrealised institution--the Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ)--enumerating the 30 years of wrangling and stalling over the methods for appointing judges and providing funds. Were CARICOM was to truly create a common market the CCJ would be vital to deciding trade disputes, he said. Three decades after the Treaty of Chaguaramas, Jackson was led to ask if globalisation inter alia had relegated CARICOM to an idea whose time had come and gone. (William Walker) Follow the goings-on in Guyana in Guyana Today