Shift gears on CARICOM Single Market and Economy says PM Gaston Browne

BELMOPAN, Belize, March 1, 2022 - Outgoing Chair of CARICOM, Prime Minister of Antigua and Barbuda Gaston Browne, has called for a shifting of gears to close implementation gaps associated with the CARICOM Single Market and Economy (CSME).

Addressing the Opening Ceremony of the Thirty-Third Meeting of the Conference of Heads of Government of CARICOM at Ambergris Caye in Belize, Prime Minister Browne, pointed out that a fully functioning CSME was required for the Region’s post-COVID-19 recovery and that the Region could no longer afford the luxury of delaying key instruments.

The flagship CSME is a major matter that the Heads will tackle during the Meeting.

The necessity of confronting some of the challenges the Community faced, Prime Minister Browne said, required urgency in CSME implementation, which has been the flagship project of the CARICOM Heads of government.

“We can no longer afford the luxury of delaying approval of key instruments such as the Financial Services Agreement, Investment Policy, Incentive Regimes and the Development and Regulation of a Regional Securities Market.

“The full operationalisation of the CSME is required for the transformation of our economies and to fight for a robust post COVID recovery.

“CARICOM needs to be able to shift gears and close its project implementation gaps, to ensure the full operationalisation of the CSME,” Prime Minister Browne said. 

The importance of the flagship CSME was also one of the main themes of opening remarks by the incoming Chair of the Community, Prime Minister of Belize,John Briceno, as  well as Dr. Secretary-General of CARICOM, Carla Barnett.

Prime Minister Briceno positioned the CSME at the “centre of regional integration” and characterised it as indispensable to economic recovery and building resilience. He broached the subject in the context of a new development plan for the region that encompassed creating prosperity for the people of the Region, building sustainability and resilience across development interventions and harnessing resource endowments.

“The CSME is at the centre of our integration. Reflecting on our undertakings in the St Ann Declaration of 2018, we need to re-double our efforts to complete the removal of the remaining barriers to intra-regional trade, empower our private sector and give full effect to the regime for free movement, including by addressing administrative obstacles.

“The CSME is the answer to the questions of how do we reduce the region’s food import bill? Of how do we generate economic growth? How we improve and benefit more from trade with extra regional partners?

“A robust CSME is indispensable to building resilient economies; it is central to our economic recovery,” Prime Minister Briceno said.