The call, more precisely a plea, from Sir Shridath Ramphal, former Chief Negotiator of the Caribbean Regional Negotiating Machinery, is for the Community heads of government to be careful in establishing their negotiating priorities with the World Trade Organisation (WTO) and for the Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA).

As Ramphal has articulated in a recent assessment on coming external negotiations, there is an urgent need for CARICOM to make a case for "time out" on the FTAA process in order to first complete negotiations with the WTO.

He seems convinced that should the FTAA come into force, with the possible completion of negotiations by mid-2004, before the conclusion of WTO negotiations that are critical to making "global trade work for people", then CARICOM could be "a big loser".

Significantly, Ramphal's suggested "time out" strategy on FTAA negotiations coincides with increasing demands from Washington, through its Trade Representative, Robert Zoellick, to conclude negotiations on the hemispheric free trade ahead of the next US Presidential election in November 2004.

Concluding an FTAA now at the hemispheric level, without the benefit of developing "country progress" at the global level, cannot be in the strategic interest of the Caribbean and Latin American nations, Ramphal has argued.

The Secretary General of CARICOM, Edwin Carrington, had earlier disclosed that the coming Montego Bay Summit would have the "arduous task" of coming forward with strategies that will, over time, transform regional economies to make them less dependent on preferential trading arrangements and reduce their vulnerability to external shocks.

What both Ramphal and Carrington have pointed to, underscores the urgent need for common and decisive approaches for the Caribbean Community to get its acts together in responding to the international challenges for the region's current and future trade and economic development

Specific issues
Some CARICOM leaders would not need much persuasion, if any, on the necessity for consensual action to achieve a sound strategy for coming external negotiations as well as in the related collective approach towards transformation of regional economies.

The President of Guyana, Bharrat Jagdeo, for one, had sketched his own vision for hastening and deepening the pace of economic development for the benefit of the Caribbean peoples when he hosted the 23rd CARICOM Summit in July last year in Georgetown.

Specifically, he called for, among other initiatives, a much overdue formulation of a common agricultural policy; creation of multilateral regimes for exploitation of petroleum and fisheries resources; working methodically, together, in battling problems of crime and security; as well as "greater accountability" for democratic governance.

It is our understanding that these and other issues raised by the Guyanese Head of State have now been formally placed for deliberations and decisions at next month's CARICOM Summit.

We are left to hope that not just substantial decisions will flow from the Summit, but that the leaders will give serious consideration to the negotiations strategy raised by Ramphal.

More than decisions, they have to come up with specific and imaginative implementation arrangements to translate deliberations and decisions into reality.