Caribbean Common Market Research Articles

Integrating Education on Climate Change in the UWI Open Campus: Promoting Sustainable Development in CARICOM

The climate challenge and need for a responseeducation about environment, including climate change, allows participants to understand why we need to change and do things differently, and ultimately empowers people to promote and contribute to achievement of sustainable development. The seriousness of climate challenge cannot be overstated. The Fourth Report of Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) informs us of significance of climate challenge and of urgency of required actions from all levels of society to address deteriorating condition of our earth.1In response to research and reporting from IPCC and other groups in international scientific community, United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) continues to lead in push for a unified approach to address global warming challenge facing us and threatening future generations. Significant work has gone into establishment of agreements and targets to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, to initiate and sustain adaptation measures, and to engage all nations in process. At UNFCCC meeting in Copenhagen in 2009, while legally binding agreement hoped for by many did not materialise, there was a commitment by largest emitters - including United States of America, India and China - to make meaningful reductions in their greenhouse gas emissions. However, from viewpoint of most vulnerable nations at these meetings, represented as Association of Small Island States (AOSIS), which include nations of Caribbean, a greater sense of urgency is needed.Yet, in Caribbean region, there is still an understated response to climate challenge. The average individual and most corporations appear not to have grasped seriousness or urgency of climate challenge, especially our overexposure as a tropical island region to its negative impacts. The pioneering and relevant work of Caribbean Community Climate Change Centre (CCCCC) located in Belize seems disconnected from daily routines of region's corporate and private citizens.The CCCCC has proposed a regional framework for climate resilience for region,2 identifying global climate change as the most serious threat to sustainable development facing Caribbean Common Market (CARICOM) and noting that in bleak picmre painted globally, CARICOM states indeed have considerable cause for concern as threats posed to region's development prospects are severe.3Another study on Caribbean region's vulnerability to global climate change reported that although Caribbean nations have contributed little to causes of global climate change, this region will pay a heavy price for global inaction in reducing emissions. Indeed, report was very pessimistic concerning future of this region if action is not taken to reverse trend toward a warming earth with its many negative and deleterious consequences:The two dozen island nations of Caribbean, and 40 million people who live there, are in front lines of vulnerability to climate change. Hotter temperatures, sea-level rise and increased hurricane intensity threaten lives, property and livelihoods throughout Caribbean. As ocean levels rise, smallest, low-lying islands may disappear under waves. As temperatures rise and storms become more severe, tourism - life-blood of many Caribbean economies - will shrink and with it both private incomes and public tax revenues that support education, social services, and infrastructure.4In light of these and other reports on potential dangers for our region, there needs to be a more consistent and focused effort to sensitise citizens of this region to climate challenge than obtains at present. Moreover, response of corporate Caribbean toward emissions reduction must be increased and reported widely. …

Subnational Sabotage or National Paramountcy? Examining the Dynamics of Subnational Acceptance of International Agreements

Federal states, such as Canada and the United States, face unique problems in implementing international agreements because they require the acceptance by subnational governments of these treaties even when the negotiations (i) do not involve them and (ii) may be impeding the rights of those subnational governments. Ever since the "watertight compartments" decision of Lord Atkin in the 1937 Labour Standards case, provincial autonomy within its sphere of influence has been a primary foci of Canadian jurisprudence. The primacy of provincial legislatures in the respective realms means that international obligations cannot be forced on them without their consent. On the other hand, both the interstate commerce clause of the US Constitution and the federal power to make treaties has been interpreted broadly to prohibit state interference in US government-signed international treaties. Even non-federal states such as the People's Republic of China have had to deal with this problem given the Special Administrative Regions of Hong Kong and Macau and the SARs' ability to sign international agreements without PRC involvement. This issue even affects sovereign states such as Jamaica when they are part of a common market superstructure, such as the proposed Caribbean Common Market (CARICOM). This paper examines, using examples drawn from Canada, the United States, Hong Kong, and the Caribbean, the influence subnational governments (and sovereign governments that are part of a common market) have on the viability of international agreements and uses game theory to suggest ways to balance the need to avoid subnational sabotage of such agreements without invoking a national paramountcy argument that could destroy a country's federal structure and create irreparable harm to the rights of subnational governments.

Technical efficiency in the agricultural sectors of selected CARICOM countries

The Caribbean Common Market (CARICOM) countries are investing in agricultural development with limited knowledge of the technical efficiencies emanating from recent changes within the sector. Hence, it is important to investigate whether agricultural efficiencies in Caribbean agriculture are enhanced through resource allocation, and whether growth in related sectors fosters linkage development with agriculture. We employ a stochastic production frontier, log-linear, and Tobit models, using cross-sectional time series data from 1960 to 2006 for eleven CARICOM countries to examine factors influencing Caribbean countries’ efficiency of agricultural contribution to Gross Domestic Product (GDP) per labor. The probability of the chi squared is 0.0001 indicating that the model is appropriate to measure the production frontier. The gamma (gamma = 0.963) indicates that the efficiency, or inefficiency, is related to the explanatory variables, while only 3.7 percent is due to random errors. Cropland per arable land per agricultural labor force, pastureland per arable land per agricultural labor force, fertilizer per crop land, and pasture land per agricultural labor force positively influence agriculture per labor force contribution to GDP, while tractors per crop land per agricultural labor force negatively influence agricultural contribution to GDP per labor. The technical efficiencies of these countries’ agriculture vary from 30 percent for St. Vincent to 95 percent for the Dominican Republic. Dominica and St. Lucia have efficiencies of 32 and 33 percent, respectively, whereas Haiti and Barbados have 93 and 94 percent, respectively. Jamaica has 80 percent while Guyana has 57 percent. All other CARICOM countries (Trinidad and Tobago, Suriname, and Belize) have less than 50 percent efficiency. Industrial growth and sugar production reduce levels of technical inefficiencies, while urban population growth rate positively influences inefficiency in the sector. The CARICOM countries must examine the factors that influence agricultural efficiency both at the micro and macro levels, and use a holistic approach that encompasses the involvement of other sectors that provide linkages to the agricultural sector. The governments can develop programs to limit the urban population and industrial growth rates, which enhance agricultural inefficiency.

THE IMPACT of FINANCIAL SERVICES GLOBALIZATION UPON the CARIBBEAN COMMON MARKET

ABSTRACTThis article tests three hypotheses concerning the policy effects of foreign exchange market liberalization and exchange controls in the three Caribbean Common Market countries of Jamaica, Trinidad & Tobago, and Barbados during the 1990s. It concludes that these cases do not show either monetary or fiscal policy to be particularly effective, when foreign exchange markets are liberalized before a functional bank regulatory system is put in place. These cases also imply that given the challenges posed by financial services globalization, the need for informed judgment by governments regarding the pace and scope of financial sector liberalization will remain critical, particularly within small developing countries.

Reflections on the Lawfulness of Invasion

Grenada is a micro-state located in the southeastern Caribbean Sea, approximately 1600 miles from the United States. Its territory covers some 133 square miles—about twice the size of the District of Columbia—and its citizen population numbers around 110,000. Granted independence from British colonial rule in 1974, Grenada functioned under a parliamentary government until March 1979, when Maurice Bishop’s New Joint Endeavor for the Welfare, Education, and Liberation (JEWEL) Movement ousted then Prime Minister Sir Eric Gairy in a near bloodless coup. Since attaining independence, Grenada sought and secured membership in the British Commonwealth, the Organization of American States, the Caribbean Common Market and the United Nations.

The Commonwealth Caribbean: The Integration Experience.

The Commonwealth Caribbean comprises twelve small, developing territories that are in the process of forging an integrated community. Bound by a common language and similar customs and colonial heritage, the community still faces many problems that derive partly from its small size, partly from economic fragmentation, and partly from the absence of a coordinated strategy for economic development. This book concentrates on the broad issues of regional integration and takes account of the national issues that impinge directly on the integration movement. Special attention is given to the central challenge of alleviating unemployment and to the potentially powerful mechanisms, such as regional programming and the productive sectors, that are crucial to the success of instruments like the Caribbean Free Trade Association and the Caribbean Common Market. Separate chapters examine in detail the process of harmonizing trade and monetary arrangements; the complex and potentially alarming outlook for population, manpower, and employment; and each of the four sectors on which the region's economy depends - transport, agriculture, tourism and industry. Each chapter evaluates the experience of the last decade, discusses the national and sectoral policy issues of current importance, and assesses the community's medium-term prospects. Where supporting evidence appears to be strong enough, the book suggests policies and programs to strengthen integration mechanisms and institutions.

Sous-développement, inégalité et crise de coopération dans la communauté des Caraïbes

Abstract Developing countries in Asia, Africa and Latin America have established a variety of regional integration schemes as part of an overall strategy of development. The conditions of underdevelopment and inequality in these regions pose a serious challenge to the theory and practice of economic integration. A clearer understanding of the process of regional integration leading to the adoption of policies more likely to contribute to development is provided by a theory of integration based on the economics and politics of underdevelopment. This theory focuses on the regional benefits of integration, their distribution within the region, and the impact of dependency on the integration process, to explain the present crisis of cooperation in the Caribbean Common Market and Community (CARICOM). The evolution of the Caribbean integration' movement provides lessons for other developing countries involved in regional integration schemes.