ST. JOHN’S, Antigua – In pursuit of their mandate to develop a comprehensive report on the project on the establishment of a single economy and appropriate political integration between Trinidad and Tobago and Eastern Caribbean States, the integration project team led by Dr Vaughan Lewis arrived in Antigua Wednesday, April 22 for consultations with the prime minister and other senior officials.
The project team assigned to Antigua and Barbuda comprised Ambassador Cuthbert Joseph of Trinidad and Tobago and Ambassador Earl Huntley of St Lucia, apart from Dr Lewis himself. The full project team also includes Dr Wayne Sandiford, Dr Velma Newton, and Dr Carl Mitchell.
Dr Lewis explained that his team had come to examine the prospects and constraints on the development of a single economy between the countries of the eastern Caribbean, including appropriate arrangements for the metropolitan overseas territories in the single space such as Guadeloupe and Martinique. In his presentation Dr Lewis emphasized that the integration project was intended to work in tandem with current arrangements, including CSME, OECS economic union and CARIFORUM obligations.
The team is expected to look at issues relating to monetary cooperation; current migration patterns; human resource requirements; social security viability; air and maritime transportation, including utilization of maritime spaces for fisheries, energy and environmental uses; as well as the security, political, constitutional and international relations configurations necessary for success.
Spencer and the Integration Team at the Office of the Prime Minister
Prime Minister Spencer welcomed such a distinguished team to Antigua and Barbuda and recalled the public service given by the team members in various capacities in the past. He stated that while Antigua and Barbuda endorsed the concept of the regional integration project, he cautioned the team that particular attention had to be paid to the current global economic crisis and its effects on the region in order to truly assess the project’s viability.
Mr Spencer spoke of the OECS economic union project, which has been launched already in several of the OECS member states. He confirmed that there was much work to be done under that project with the current deadline of December 2009. In addition, the prime minister drew attention to the fact that many aspects of the CSME commitments remained still to be implemented, and that completing all the legal, administrative and financial actions required was proving a challenge, especially for some of the smaller administrations in the grouping.
The meeting engaged in a wide-ranging discussion which addressed the challenges of the current OECS and CSME arrangements especially the regional institutions which are the administrative arm of the political The meeting was also attended by ambassadors Colin Murdoch and Clarence Henry of the ministry of finance.
After the engaging exchanges, Dr Lewis committed to returning with his team to Antigua and Barbuda soon in order to advance the consultations even further.
