More CARICOM spin will get us nowhere fast

KINGSTON, Jamaica - JUST before last week's 34th meeting of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) Conference of Heads of Government in Port of Spain, we bemoaned in this space that CARICOM, some five years after the eruption of the global economic crisis, had still not formulated a regional response.
The rationale for a regional response is two-fold. First, joint action with the regional integration process can generate spread effects from the countries experiencing high growth rates to those which are stagnating. The regional strategy can complement and reinforce national stabilisation and stimulate higher rates of sustainable economic growth. This type of multiplier effect from growth poles to struggling economies will not happen by the market acting alone because the CARICOM Single Market and Economy (CSME) does not exist in a tangible operational mode. In these circumstances regional governments need to act collectively.