CARIBBEAN: Taking Giant Steps Towards Integration

By Dalia Acosta Reprint | | Print |

Dalia Acosta

HAVANA, Sep 6 1996 (IPS) - Representatives from 17 Association of Caribbean States (ACS) member nations, took practical steps towards regional integration this week, drawing up a plan of action for approval in their Council of Ministers later this year.

The ACS is a relatively new body, made up of 25 sovereign States and 12 territories, of the Caribbean basin, including Mexico, the seven Central American nations, Colombia, Venezuela, the 13 Caricom nations, the Dominican Republic, Cuba and Haiti.

The group was officially created on August 17, 1995 to accomplish the old dream of shared future development of the Caribbean.

The bloc has a joint population of 202 million people, a Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of some 500 billion dollars, and massive differences in the socioeconomic level of its members.

Britain, France and the Netherlands, who all have dependencies or protectorates in the region, are active observers of the ACS, unlike the United States, which refused to let Puerto Rica or the American Virgin Islands join the group while Cuba was a member.

This attitude exerted great public and private pressure on the creation of the ACS, and the decision to hold the first large scale organism meeting in Havana was deliberately planned to demonstrate the forum’s independence from Washington, according to Latin American diplomats at the meeting.

The experts state the Caribbean is the fourth most important world economic bloc behind the North American Free Trade Agreement, the European Union and Asia, though it is the least integrated and most dependent on imports, with 75 percent of raw materials and consumer products coming from outside the region.

Simon Molina, AEC director based in Trinidad and Tobago, said this week in Havana that the Caribbean must be ready to insert itself in a hemispheric bloc by the year 2005.

The proposal, which will be presented for the approval of the ACS Council of Ministers next December in the Cuban capital, was produced in a meeting of the special science, technology, health, education, culture and sports committee.

The plans ranged from the creation of a regional network for the electronic transmission of medical information to developing sport in the community as a form of preventing drug addiction, alcoholism, smoking and violence.

“There is a marked interest in finding integration mechanisms which do not duplicate those already in existence, like the United Nations,” said Ismael Clark, director of the Cuban Academy of Sciences.

Clark, who headed the special committee which met in Havana this week, said the meeting did not aim to adopt “ambitious programmes” but wanted get the organisation working.

As a lead up to the second meeting of the Council of Ministers from Dec. 9 to 13, there will be further meetings of the special committees on trade and foreign economic relations, environmental protection and conservation, natural resources and budgeting and administration.

And while local observers saw only a “modest step” forward taken on the path planned by the ACS leadership this week, this was far better than any of the hollow political declarations produced so far.

The science project presented by Cuba was perhaps the element least popular element with the other members, who opted for a more general plan of scientific action in the region.

The detailed Cuban document had proposed preliminary studies to establich a climatic early warning system, the installation of a centre for the diagnosis of exotic animal and plant diseases and another for energy development, along with the promotion of biotechnology.

Meanwhile, the Cuban proposals on sport were more widely accepted, along with Mexico’s report on education and Venezuela’s contribution on culture and the Panamerican Health Organisation.

The health plan suggested a meeting of ACS national experts in Cuba in early 1997, to study the problem of the epidemic of transmissible diseases.

Planned action in the health field includes a programme for the training of human resources and, on Mexico’s suggestion, the creation of a production industry to provide the region with the medical supplies it lacks, and to make competitive products.

The representatives agreed to promote the systematic teaching of the official association languages – Spanish, English and French – encouraging bilateral regional projection schemes and increasing cooperation in special, higher and adult education.

Venezuela’s cultural proposals included a programme to train specialists, to stimulate music and dance research, development and dissemination, and to strengthen the most relevant Caribbean festivals.

Meanwhile, in sport, bilateral and multilateral undertakings for physical, recreational and health activities were prioritised, seeking sporting excellence and promoting talent spotting, with exchange programmes for technical personnel.

According to the experts, sport appears to be one of the most viable routes for integration in the short-term, as the projects proposed will quickly give results.

This sector could only be outdone by culture, where the Caribbean nations already have a well-established tradition of trade.