Deeper integration within CARICOM should not be construed as an escape into insularity, Foreign Affairs Minister Rudy Insanally told the Parliamentary Summit for Hemispheric Integration in Brasilia last Tuesday.
"On the contrary, CARICOM has been actively seeking within recent years to develop new partnerships with countries of the wider Caribbean and Latin America," Insanally noted.
In his address, Insanally observed that through organisations like the Association of Caribbean States (ACS), Latin America Economic Commission (ECLAC) and the Oranization of American States (OAS), "we are attempting to diversify our traditional relations with the metropolitan North by reaching out to the countries of the South."
In this context, Insanally pointed out that President Bharrat Jagdeo, the current Chairman of CARICOM, had pushed the concept of Guyana as a gateway for the Caribbean to South America that would effectively link the two zones through trade and economic cooperation.
And already Guyana's relations with Brazil have shown the great promise which the gateway concept holds, Insanally contended. He noted also that besides a Partial Scope Trade Agreement negotiated last year, there are several other projects in progress, particularly in the area of infrastructure, such as air and road links, to further enhance the proximity of the two neighbours.
Moreover, Insanally said, as part of the process of hemispheric integration, the Committee on the Integration of Regional Infrastructure in South America (IIRSA) has approved a Guyana/Brazil road link for funding by the Inter-American Development Bank and other sources.
"Once this highway has been constructed, a whole new dimension will be added to our bilateral relations, (while) other projects are also being developed with our other neighbours Suriname and Venezuela."
The importance of physical infrastructure to the creation of a more dynamic integration of CARICOM and Latin American countries cannot be ignored, Insanally said.
"It is not enough, however, to focus only on infrastructure, for without cultural contact CARICOM-Latin American relations will not fully develop.... the expansion of cultural and linguistic cooperation throughout the region would certainly improve communication and promote interaction, both economic and social, among our countries."
Earlier in his address, Insanally stated that CARICOM countries are of the view that the advantages of globalization and trade liberalization are "to be had only by the rich and powerful and not by the small and poor states like themselves who are too weak to compete in the global economy."
In that light, they argue, unless provision is made in the market for special and differential treatment for their products, they cannot hold their own against the forces of liberalization. "The principle now seems to have been accepted, although gradually, with the World Trade Organisation (WTO) and the Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA)," Insanally remarked.
However, he argued, even this facility would not provide CARICOM countries with enough economic security since not only is it temporary in its relief but also inadequate to their development needs. They therefore continue to call for a Regional Development Fund, similar to that created by the European Community to reduce the economic disparity among its member states.
More CARICOM countries, he stressed, now insist that not only must there be free trade but there must also be fair trade which recognises the problems of small and vulnerable states and allows them some prospects to enter the mainstream of the global ecomomy.