Caricom keeps Dom.Republic on hold
Another forgettable Caricom summit. It is the same old, same old.
What did the 30th Caricom Heads of Government meeting in Guyana achieve?
It surely will not prevent illegal Guyanese being hunted down in the middle of the night in Barbados by over-zealous immigration officers. Nor has it clarified Prime Minister Patrick Manning’s crazy ambitions to have a political union with the 500,000-strong Organisation of Caribbean States (OECS).
After 36 years of the signing of the Treaty of Chaguaramas and a commitment by the founding fathers to expand Caricom to include the French, Spanish and Dutch-speaking territories, it remains essentially a narrow Anglophone ex-colonial boys club.
The Heads deferred, for the umpteenth time the decision to admit the Dominican Republic as a member.
The Dominican Republic has been a joint partner with Caricom in the EPA negotiations with the European Commission.
This country has a population of over 9 million which is bigger than the combined English-speaking Caricom countries. It has been an excellent market for this country’s goods and services.
Caricom dithers while the world passes it by.