‘CARICOM get prepared now!’

Sir Hilary Beckles, The Vice Chancellor of the University of the West Indies, has offered some recommendations to the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) in response to Britain’s vote to leave the European Union – popularly referred to as “Brexit”.

 

Speaking at a Forum on Brexit, hosted by the Office of the Vice Chancellor at the UWI regional headquarters, Mona, Sir Hilary said that CARICOM must move as a matter of urgency to reinvent the scenario post-emancipation, which saw Caribbean Indigenous People networking freely across the region. 

 

He urged CARICOM to avoid a wait-and-see approach, and immediately establish with UWI a task force to research, monitor and report on the weekly developments that will take place over the next two years. It’s important, he said, that leaders in government and the private sector have access to factual, detailed information on an ongoing basis in order to guide their thinking and decisions. The days of ad hoc decision making are over. The university is already in the field on every relevant front and can become the agency through which leaders are provided with the information and insights to craft the Caribbean journey through the changing environment.

 

His second recommendation, he said, is that CARICOM should set up a “regional research and development fund” in order to facilitate innovation within the private sector that is required to strengthen entrepreneurship. Commenting on the failure to take advantage of the opportunities of the EPA agreements, he noted that the regional economy is at a stage where it can only compete at the level of innovation, and it is failing to do so because of inadequate research and development within production. 

 

The region, he said, competed as commodity producers at the level of price during the 1960/70s, and at the level of quality in the services sector up to 2000, but is now required to compete at the level of innovation and is failing to do so. Only an innovation revolution driven by research and development can break through this barrier.

 

CARICOM, Sir Hilary said, “must also strengthen the conversation around and renegotiate the various agreements that can reinforce and expand the CARIFORUM (EU Economic Partnership Agreement), including pacts negotiated by the African Caribbean and Pacific States (ACP) – which the Caribbean has not taken full advantage of over several years, – and (the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC).

 

Sir Hilary said that, “Britain has always acted deliberately and strategically in its own self-interest and the Brexit vote is a threat to the fragile stability the region has been able to build over the past years.” He noted that, even before the Brexit vote the EU had graduated most Caribbean countries, with the exception of Haiti, into a mid-income designation level “that denies us the support we are entitled to.” In this regard he said that CARICOM should insist that a vulnerability index should be used instead to more accurately gauge the needs of the various countries in the region.”

 

“Britain has skillfully managed its relationship with this continent over the past 800 years. They refused to fund our plans for a Federation and left 80 per cent of our people illiterate when they finally granted us Independence in 1962. That sent the entire Caribbean into hyper-spending mode to clean up the mess and now we have insurmountable fiscal problems. Instead of financial help we were offered preferential treatment for our raw materials, Then Britain joined the EU in the 1970’s leaving behind the Caribbean and CARICOM. We had the same discussion then as we are having today – what are we going to do now?” Sir Hilary declared.

 

“You are well positioned as strategic leaders to help steer the region on the right path”, he told newly appointed Chair of the CARICOM Review Commission, Rt. Hon. Bruce Golding, former Prime Minister of Jamaica.

 

Golding – a member of the UWI Brexit Forum panel – said that while the exit by Britain from the EU may have some impact on the Caribbean he did not think it would reach crisis proportions.  He said that Caribbean trading with Europe has been “at best anaemic” in the recent past and even then, there has typically been more activity with countries other than Britain. “In any event most of the agreements we have signed are with the EU and not Britain and these should not be adversely affected,” he said, noting that new agreements may have to be negotiated with Britain, additionally, in due course.

 

He said however, that, “these arrangements will not absolve us from the need to fix our own domestic problems. This is true of the entire region, but in Jamaica – in particular – our labour productivity has been on a continuous decline every year. We can’t blame Britain or Europe for that.”

 

His Excellency David Fitton, British High Commissioner to Jamaica, another panellist, said that he agreed with Sir Hilary and Golding that the Caribbean should not adopt a “wait and see” approach to Brexit although it would take some time for Britain to fully exit the EU. He said he did not see why there would be a negative change in the relationship between Europe and the Caribbean as a result of the exit.

 

Dr. Dana Dixon, Executive Business Development & Research, Jamaica National Building Society, meanwhile, predicted that Brexit will have “profound implications for Caribbean businesses”.  Noting that, “immediately following the vote to exit the EU the British pound depreciated by over ten per cent and plunged to its lowest value in 31 years, and the global stockmarket was negatively 

affected.”

 

Dr. Dixon added that  there is a real threat to tourism earnings especially for countries like Barbados, which is a prime destination for British tourists”. 

 

Moderator of the panel discussion Dr. Damien King noted that Brexit has implications for the Caribbean in a range of spheres and has to be 

considered relative to other occurrences  if we are to overcome any threats and challenges as a result of Britain’s decision to leave the EU.