Playing Mas with CARICOM

Claude Clarke, Contributor

In three weeks, 'the greatest show on earth' will roll round the Port-of-Spain Savannah in colourful splendour. Masquerade and bacchanal will abound as in two days of unrestrained ecstasy, revellers will gorge on grog and wine themselves into frenzy. Masquerade in Trinidad is more than a festival; it is a way of life.

Masquerade is pretence. It is full of posture and pose. It is imagery. It feels good while it lasts, but in the end, it produces little more than a short-term high.

In many ways, carnival Mas is analogous to the Caribbean's regional economic union, CARICOM: full of posture and style but unable to provide economic uplift for all its members. The so-called common market is more show than substance. And for Jamaica, it has been an unaffordable indulgence.

Interestingly, Trinidad, the most experienced in the art of masquerade, has been able to distinguish between the superficies of CARICOM and serving its national economic interest, while Jamaica, a recent convert to carnival, is captivated by the imagery of the regional organisation.

While Trinidad has used its energy advantage to exploit the opportunities of the common market, Jamaica has distinguished itself by slavish adherence to the CARICOM rules.

Jamaica's dismal trade record in the region tells the tale. One year before the 1989 Grande Anse Heads of Government Meeting, at which the decision to adopt a Single Market and Economy was made, Jamaica's trade with CARICOM was balanced, at just under US$60 million. Since the implementation of the CSME, our exports have barely moved; but our trade deficit with the single market skyrocketed and peaked at more than US$1.5 billion in 2008, almost 12 per cent of our GDP.

This surge in imports from CARICOM has come with grave economic and fiscal consequences. It has left a gaping hole in Jamaica's capacity to provide employment and create productive jobs. Output of goods and export services has contracted. Large segments of our population have been excluded from the economic mainstream and relegated to streetside hustling, scuffling and economic hopelessness. And the society has been living with increasing unemployment, disorder and lawlessness.

STRUCTURAL UNCOMPETITIVENESS

The Jamaican people have been left with a predicament, which a taxi driver recently described to me as 'too much man' an' too much lan': a condition created by structural uncompetitiveness, which prevents an economy from properly utilising its available economic resources.

The absurd irony is that the resolution of this problem should be the single market's principal justification: the efficient allocation of economic assets, which would enable labour to migrate away from locations where jobs are scarce to places where they are available.

But the CSME's structure does not accommodate such movement. Its immigration policies have not been designed to do what now takes place in the Western world's other single market and economy, the European Union (EU). An open passport is all that an EU citizen needs to walk through an immigration checkpoint within the EU. And once inside the Schengen Region, there is no visible check.

The free movement of labour is a fundamental principle enshrined in the EU treaty, enacted in state law and developed by the rulings of the European Court of Justice. Under this principle, EU citizens are entitled to:

1. Look for a job in another EU country;

2. Work in any member country without obtaining a work permit;

3. Reside in any member country; and enjoy almost equal treatment with nationals in access to employment, working conditions and other social and tax advantages.

CARICOM's failure to implement similar measures while providing for the free movement of goods has cost Jamaica dearly. And so we struggle with the consequences of joblessness while our leaders continue to be dazzled by the glamour of the CSME.

Forty years ago, before there was a CSME, I visited Trinidad. Then, Jamaicans did not have the 'privilege' of being included in the same immigration line as T&T nationals. Then, the only questions asked by the immigration officer were where and how long you would be staying or the name of the company with which you would be doing business.

Based on my own recent personal experience, now that 'citizens of CARICOM and Trinidad and Tobago nationals' stand together in the same line, T&T's immigration officers require the specific name and telephone number of the individual with whom you will be doing business. The officer, and before her, the T&T national airline must also see evidence, not just that you will be leaving Trinidad but that you have in hand the transit documents to return, not to any old place like Barbados or the USA, but to Jamaica, where they are sure you cannot be refused entry.

Of course, all this is avoidable if one is the holder of what is called a CARICOM Skills Certificate: a kind of visa, if you will, to establish that you are not just an ordinary person but a member of an elite class, comprising university graduates, media persons, artists, musicians, sportspersons and other professionals with specific skills.

ACCEPT BENEFITS, BURDENS

Nowhere is there room for the tens of thousands of ordinary Jamaican workers whose jobs have migrated to other CARICOM countries. In a common market, jobs will inevitably move between states. The CSME fails to recognise that a single market and economy does not exist if ordinary workers are unable to follow their jobs and compete to recover them. If we are going to be serious about a single economy, each state must be prepared to accept the benefits as well as the burdens that come with it.

A single market and economy should, in fact, work like insurance. You pay the premiums (as an open immigration policy might be seen) in order to get the benefits such as increased export earnings and economic expansion.

A state that is happy to earn billions of US dollars from the region must also be prepared to allow the unimpeded inflow of ordinary people from the region to participate in this economic gain.

As long as Jamaica remains in CARICOM while suffering US billion-dollar trade deficits and spend billions subsidising regional imports, the least our leaders must do is insist on the free movement of people within the CSME.

We cannot remain part of an organisation that robs our people of employment, our economy of foreign exchange, and our government of valuable revenue. We cannot continue to support an arrangement which denies ordinary Jamaicans the opportunity to compete for employment on an equal basis with other CARICOM nationals when their jobs are being shipped to other parts of the region.

Can we expect our leaders to do what is necessary? Or will they continue to play mas with CARICOM?

Claude Clarke is a businessman and former minister of industry. Email feedback to columns@gleanerjm.com.