Regional Integration

A Guide to Regional Integration (Regional Integration is about Building Together Regional Integration is about Building Together) in the OECS.

his brief paper is intended to provide a review, for the general public, of the background to the development of the OECS, its experience up to now, and why some of that experience suggests the need for a closer relationship among the OECS countries. Further papers will seek to provide documentation on various aspects relating to the matter of Closer Political Union.

The CARICOM Single Market and Economy (CSME) is the flagship of the regional integration movement, aimed at creating a single economic space which will support competitive production within CARICOM for both intra-regional and extra-re~onal markets. It is considered critical to the future growth and development of the Region, and intended to ensure that CARJCOM effectively surmounts the challenges and difficulties that confront Member States and keep pace with the changing global economic climate.

Despite substantial social and economic progress, CARICOM States continue to be confronted by a number of imposing challenges, including the high prevalence and rising incidence of HIV/AIDS; increasing poverty, varying among countries in severity and rural/urban distribution;high rates of unemployed youth; drug abuse, violence and crime, linked to the narcotic drug trade, and their growing threat to security; the loss of trade preferences for the traditional products of bananas, rice, sugar and rum, resulting in loss of market security; the negative effect
on offshore financial services, an area in which Member States enjoyed a comparative advantage, by OECD actions to counter money-laundering; and the impact of changes in information and communication technology, in giving rise to new economic activities based on knowledge and information at the expense of traditional natural resources-based industries.

The Fourth and Final Report of the Regional Constituent Assembly of the Windward Islands (R.C.A.) can usefully begin with a restatement of the tasks which it was charged with undertaking. These are set out in paragraph 4 • 1 of the Agreement between the Governments which participated in the setting up of the R.C.A. and read -
"The Constituent Assembly shall undertake -

(a) to consider and advise on the question of Windward Islands political union with specific reference to the economic and social viability of the union, the economic cost of union and the external relations and administrative implications of the union;
(b) to consider and advise on the possible forms of union, that is, whether the proposed union should be a state which is federal, unitary or of some other form; (c) to consider and advise on the structure of government and
elements of a constitution which would be most appropriate to the union, including the administrative and electoral
mechanisms."

This paper examines the theoretical basis for integration and presents the objectives and functions of the OECS secretariats with respect to regi onal integration. Describes developments in OECS regional integration over the period 1982-1991 and traces chronological stages in the process. Analyses the impact of the integration movement on growth and development of the OECS as a sub-region. concludes that regional economic integration provides the most powerful means of overcoming the economic disadvantages of small size from which all OECS economies s uffer. Fear and resistance to regional economic integration cont inues because of a lack of knowledge of some of its beneficial effects.

Regional integration processes among the developing countries which experienced tremendous impetus in the late 1960s and early 1970s is now at a nadir. Even the East African Community which seemed likely to withstand sharp regional dissension has floundered; disintegrating in 1977 without being mourned and leaving the region in acrinomy over the division of its assets. The Caribbean Community (CARICOM) is no exception. Although there exists a strong link between regional integration and economic development nevertheless, this has not been an overriding consideration to justify its rapid consolidation and expansion

All OECS Member States are committed to the objective of economic integration but the magnitude and extend of this commitment to integration differs between Member States. In recent years, the Windward Islands Member States have indicated their desire for full economic integration by means of political union. The remaining OECS Member States seem to prefer the attainment of high levels of economic integration without the necessity for political union. Since market integration is the major means of attaining these high levels of economic integration it is obvious that all OECS Member States would have to address this question.

The Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States (OECS) was established in 1981 with the Central and_Economic_ Affairs secretariats, the Directorate of Civil Aviation, the Eastern Caribbean Tourism Association and two overseas missions in London and Ottawa. Today, some thirteen years later, the organisation has expanded its portfolio quite significantly amassing in the process a total of fifteen separate institutions, . engaged in a wide variety of activities. Appendix 1 provides a list of OECS institutions with a brief description of the role and function of each. The activities of these institutions might be grouped for the purpose of analysis under rive runctional headings: trade and economic development activities; natural resources development and management; social services; aviation services; and general or cross-sectoral support services.

A SUMMARY OF THE PROCEEDINGS OF THE .FOURTH MEETING OF THE REGIONAL CONSTITUENT ASSEMBLY OF THE WINDWARD ISLANDS 20TH - 25TH JANUARY 1992 ST GEORGES, GRENADA

Integration has appealed to the islands of the Caribbean as a means of overcoming some of the inherent difficulties of small size and economic, political, linguistic and geographical fragmentation. One of the persistent problems facing integration, however, is the pronounced differences in levels of development in economic and political structures of the countries in the region and the inability of integration mechanisms to satisfy the needs at both ends of the scale. This problem is a permanent source of dissatisfaction for those countries which have not obtained the expected benefits.

An Introduction to the De v e lopment of the Structural and Operational Facets of CARICOM' s ECCM/OECS LDCS

ITC-UNCT1\ D/G1\TT-ECCM Symposium on Supply Management and Import Operations in ECCM Member States

On January 14, 1991, the four Windward Islands of Dominica, Grenada, St. Lucia. and St. Vincent and the Grenadines launched an initiative to create a political Union among themselves when they established the Regional Constituent Assembly of the Windward Islands on political union. The Assembly, or RCA as it came to be called, brought together forty-four persons drawn from political parties, the private sector, the churches, women, youth, trade unions and farmers organisations from the four islands of Dominica, Grenada, St. Lucia, and St. Vincent and the Grenadines. The mandate of the Assembly was" (a) "to consider and advise onthe question ofWindward Islands political union with specific reference to the economic and social viability of the union, economic costs of a union and the external relations and administrative implications of the union;" (b) to consider and advise on the possible forms of union, that is, whether the proposed union should be a state which is federal, unitary, or some other form; (c) to consider and advise on the structure of government and elements of a constitution which would be most appropriate to the union, including the administrative and electoral mechanisms."

The Fourth and Final Report of the Regional Constituent Assembly of the Windward Islands (R.C.A.) can usefully begin with a restatement of the tasks which it was charged with undertaking. These are set out in paragraph 4 • 1 of the Agreement between the Governments which participated in the setting up of the R.C.A. and read -

"The Constituent Assembly shall undertake -
(a) to consider and advise on the question of Windward Islands political union with specific reference to the economic and social viability of the union, the economic cost of union and the external relations and administrative implications of the union;
(b) to consider and advise on the possible forms of union, that is, whether the proposed union should be a state which is federal, unitary or of some other form;
(c) to consider and advise on the structure of government and elements of a constitution which would be most appropriate to the union, including the administrative and electoral mechanisms."

This Handbook has been pr epared as part of a programme of information and educatioFl in the Eas tern Carib!Je:,~1 as well as the wider Caribbean region, to promote the establishment of the Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States (OECS).

In November, 1989, the OECS Authority agreed to pursue a political unity programme for all OECS member states. One major activity to be undertaken by this programme involves the establishment of a series of Technical Tasks Forces with resonsibily for drafting constitutional arrangements and for examining the alternatives and costs of various forms of union.

A presentation by Dr. Pearlette Louisy discussing how parallel processes of diversification and harmonisation have
led on the one hand to the establishment of national multi-purpose institutions, and on the other to a new form of regionalism based on networks of mutually-supporting institutions;

A guide to Regional Integration (Regional Integration is about Building Together) in the OECS.