(CARICOM Secretariat, Turkeyen, Greater Georgetown, Guyana) The implementation of the CARICOM Single Market on 1 January 2006 marked the realisation of a dream envisioned by the founding fathers of regional integration, and has the potential to significantly reduce the Region’s food import bill which is now more than US$3 billion dollars.

This was the view expressed by President of the Caribbean Congress of Labour (CCL), Mr. Lincoln Lewis, who said that that the labour movement embraced the Single Market thrust towards Caribbean integration, having recognised that it was only through networking and the pooling of resources throughout the Region that poverty can be addressed. “We view the Single Market as a process of attacking poverty,” Mr Lewis stated.

He stressed that trade union and political leaders now needed to become more active in the Single Market process, as Caribbean citizens were already moving to reap the benefits associated with its implementation.

While noting that the labour movement was networking to garner information and keep Caribbean citizens apace with the trade related activities under the Single Market, which will be followed by the implementation of the Single Economy, Mr. Lewis said, “Where there is trade, there must be a stable economy to sustain that trade.”

The launch of the CARICOM Single Market on January 1, 2006, was the first phase of the Region’s thrust to create a seamless market space. Barbados, Belize, Guyana, Jamaica, Suriname and Trinidad and Tobago became the first six CARICOM countries to have signed on to the Single Market, which will be formally launched on Monday 30 January in Kingston, Jamaica. The programme will be broadcast live and transmitted via the Caribbean Media Corporation Member Stations throughout the Region.