KINGSTON, Jamaica, CMC:
A PROMINENT Jamaican trade expert is calling for a new treaty provision to facilitate the appointment of a single body to conduct trade negotiations on behalf of all Caribbean Community (CARICOM) countries.
Under-Secretary for Trade in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade, Ambassador Gail Mathurin, believes the Treaty of Chaguaramas, which established CARICOM, should be further revised to entrench such an appointment.
Speaking at the CARICOM 30th Anniversary Conference at the Mona campus of the University of the West Indies here over the weekend, Mathurin argued that the existing regional structures were not adequate to meet the new demands of international trade negotiations.
EXISTING STRUCTURES
The existing structures, she said, were: the Conference of Heads; the Prime Ministerial Sub-Committee on External Economic Negotiations; the Community Council of Ministers; the Council for Trade and Economic Development (COTED); and a number of technical working groups designed to develop detailed negotiating positions on the various issues on the trade agenda.
In addition, she said, the COTED and the technical working groups have provision for participation by non-governmental actors. These bodies are supported by the CARICOM Secretariat and the Caribbean Regional Negotiating Machinery (RNM).
"The prime function of these two institutions is to provide the technical support which is absolutely crucial to the process of formulating trade policy and developing negotiating positions," she said.
PARTICULAR REMIT
While pointing out that the RNM "has a particular remit in this area, with the Secretariat playing a more supportive rule", and though affirming that these bodies had worked "reasonably well", Mathurin said the emergence of the World Trade Organisation (WTO) made it imperative that CARICOM 'goes further in its institutional arrangements and its governance structure'. She said there was no provision in the CARICOM Treaty or in the decisions of Conference for a designated body to conduct negotiations on behalf of the Community.
The trade expert said that the current situation is that individuals in relevant regional institutions are mandated to negotiate on behalf of the Community from time to time, but that such is untenable, noting that these were case-by-case and ad hoc arrangements, largely related to negotiations, which have a finite timetable.
In the case of the WTO, she said a permanent central negotiating institution was needed, to which the Community would "devolve formal negotiating authority, via treaty obligation.
INSTITUTIONAL ARRANGEMENTS
"We in CARICOM need to develop the necessary institutional arrangements to ensure that our interests are effectively and consistently represented."
Pointing to the existing situation in Geneva, where the WTO is headquartered, Ambassador Mathurin said that the arrangements there for continuing negotiations did not provide the region with the most effective representation possible.
She said one the major reasons for that situation was that CARICOM member States ratified the WTO agreement as individual member States.
"The Caribbean Community has no place at the table in the WTO, in its own right" she argued, adding that it was doubtful whether, "under the current treaty arrangements, the Community, as a single entity, can seek WTO membership in the way that the European Commission was able to do."
As a result, she said that CARICOM's negotiations in Geneva relied heavily on national representation, hamstrung by the fact that only three countries had permanent representatives in Geneva.
With CARICOM currently reviewing its governance structures, she argued that the Community needed a single treaty obligation empowering the appropriate regional institution or individual to carry out this function.
"Treaty obligation is necessary to ensure that this function is enshrined in national legislation," she added.
