April 10, 2025
CSME — an idea whose time has now come
In 1989 the regional heads of Government established the Caribbean Single Market and Economy (CSME) to create a single space for, among other things, trade, services, capital, technology, and the free movement of skilled professionals.
Few, if any, would dispute, in the face of the global market meltdown over the Donald Trump tariff regime, that the CSME is an idea whose time has come.
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To be sure, when the wise men and women of the Caribbean Community (Caricom) met at Grande Anse, Grenada, to bring the CSME into being, hardly anyone would have envisioned a scenario in which the US slapped tariff increases on almost every country all at once.
The objectives of the CSME are the kind of measures that the Caribbean would need at a time like this to help the region survive the crisis, especially through the removal of trade barriers.
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And, even with Wednesday’s announcement that President Donald Trump had backed down on his tariffs on most nations for 90 days, Caribbean nations would have seen how important it is to have such a mechanism as the single market in place.
It is clear that no one Caribbean territory could escape the pain and suffering that the tariffs would have wrought. Our best bet would have been to expand the scope of the regional market, working as one, instead of a collection of microstates.
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The reliance of Caribbean economies on imports is well-established.
“Just go to the supermarket or visit the mall or the hardware shop or the electronic store, and you will see that most of the things there are not produced in this region,” Caricom Chairman Mia Mottley acknowledged a few days ago.
Countries like ours should not wait until there is a global crisis to seek out new partners for trade and other economic relations. In the Caribbean, we have talked a lot about stepping up trade with Africa and Latin American, as well as renewing ties with older partners like Britain, Europe, and Canada. We must stop talking and do the hard work to achieve it.
We are not immediately clear what will happen after Mr Trump’s 90-day pause on tariffs, but we can speculate that he pulled back from the brink because of global pushback and, probably more importantly, pressure from within the US Administration, the Republican party, and some of the president’s biggest supporters.
From the beginning it was never clear what the long game was going to be for imposing baseline tariffs of 10 per cent and greater amounts on some nations, including proven friends of America.
It started out with tariffs on its biggest trade partners — Canada and Mexico — over the illegal movement of fentanyl and migrants across their borders. Then it was suggested that the tariffs are part of a negotiating tactic, which would make them temporary as long as other countries work with Mr Trump.
At another point it was said that the tariffs are meant to raise tax revenue and to bring back US manufacturing, which would suggest they are permanent, because “tariffs can’t raise money or entice manufacturers back to America if they end”, as The New York Times puts it.
In these adverse times, let us heed the advice of many Caribbean leaders over time, and which Ms Mottley, in her own words, reminded us recently: “If we come together, put any divisions aside, support our small businesses and small producers, we will come out of this stronger… If we work together and strengthen our own, we can ride through this crisis.”
