PM Gonsalves slams Caricom

Prime Minister Dr. Ralph Gonsalves has bashed some members of CARICOM saying that some member states are of the view that Section 158 under the Revised Treaty of Chaguaramas and the CARICOM Development Fund (CDF) are something optional.{{more}}

And the Prime Minister is warning that if there is inequity amongst the islands, the regional integration movement can collapse.

But Gonsalves, at the April 5 sitting of Parliament, contended that the CDF was a part of the legal architecture of the revised treaty which was signed in 2001.

The issue was raised after the Prime Minister put forward a motion for a Bill in the House authorizing the Government to borrow US $2.57 million dollars from the CDF for the purchase of a stone crushing machine.

The Government is also expected to get US$1.7 million in grants.

But even this figure was significantly less than what Gonsalves said he was aiming to get.

“It was my aim to get as much as US $16 million, but because the fund has not been fully capitalized we have not been able to get the extent we were to get under the treaty,” Gonsalves explained.

The Prime Minister disclosed that the CDF was to be initially funded with US $250 million, with US$120 million coming from contributors within CARICOM. He said Trinidad and Jamaica are expected to be the main contributors and the other US$130 million are to be raised through funding agencies around the world.

He further explained that this country had already made its contribution, which was a grant of US$4 million from Turkey. Gonsalves acknowledged that the rest of CARICOM was unsuccessful in raising the other $130 million.

But Gonsalves made the point that when he signed on to the treaty, he signed on to everything included inside that treaty.

Under article 158, the CDF was established to provide assistance to disadvantaged countries, economies and sectors.

“The framers of the treaty wanted to make it clear that it is part of the compensatory mechanism in a single market and single economy. It is part of the legal architecture which says that is you have some integration movement and members are unequally yolked; the integration movement will inevitably collapse,” Gonsalves said.

He further explained that some of the larger, more developed countries within CARICOM are at an advantage.

“We do not have a significant manufacturing sector,” Gonsalves said.

He added that Trinidad, for example, had the advantage of cheaper fuel and, in some instances, subsidized fuel to their manufacturers.

He reminded the gathering of a mechanism that the Patrick Manning administration had set up outside the CDF, known as the CARICOM Petroleum Fund, which was an optional facility.

Under this facility Gonsalves stated that this country received between US$5 to US$8 million a year, especially when oil prices were high.

Gonsalves said that he had put the question as to the status of this fund to that country’s current Prime Minister and Foreign Minister during the recent heads of government meeting in Grenada, but was yet to get a response.

He said that he wanted to make the position of his government clear and that he was not “throwing words for anybody.”

“We all in OECS need to know,” he said.

He added that it was in the same way that CL Financial, the parent company of CLICO and British American, had collected over a billion dollars in annuities and the money was invested in real estate in Florida and Trinidad.

“They have the assets and we have the liabilities and you expect everything to be honkydory in CARICOM?”

He added that for the integration movement to survive, it had to be based on the modern application of the ancient Aristotelian principle of equity among equals, proportionality among unequals.

The issue is expected to be raised during the special meeting of CARICOM heads scheduled for Guyana, Gonsalves said.

A date for this meeting is yet to be announced. (DD)