The Caribbean Single Market and Economy is here and the Directorate of Foreign Trade wants to get the word out. It became law on January 1st and not much has changed since then, but it could shortly. The Directorate says we can expect to see greater movement of capital and labor...but that's not the only thing you can expect to change. Here's more.
Keith Swift Reporting,
Say goodbye to your Belizean passport and hello to this because by next year when you apply for a Belizean passport this is what you'll get: a CARICOM passport. This specimen was issued in Suriname. Its already being used there and it's now only a matter of time before this CARICOM passport becomes Belize's passport. Shawn Richards works with the Ministry of Foreign Trade.
Shawn Richards, Foreign Trade Directorate
"With the new passport, I think we have those being used in at least six CARICOM member states. Belize is a special circumstance because we issued our machine readable passports early last year, January2005 I think it was, so in our case we have to wait until this stock is depleted before we can go into a CARICOM passport."
Keith Swift,
And once that stock is depleted, when I go for a passport I'll get a CARICOM passport?
Shawn Richards,
"Yes that will be expected. We expected that Belize should be using them by 2007. It will still be a Belizean passport because if you've seen the samples, you have CARICOM at the top; you'll be using your Belizean emblem which is the coat of arms, and underneath you'll have Belize."
But while the passports are yet to change, there isn't much else that will. There hasn't been a lot of changes since January 1. The Ministry of Foreign Trade hosted a seminar for media personnel. The discussion was led by at a workshop with Dr. Steven Andrew from the CARICOM secretariat..
Dr. Steven Andrew, CSME Unit - CARICOM
"The market is now operational so the last couple of weeks at the CSME Unit in Barbados we have been bombarded with questions from entrepreneurs, self-employed persons, who want to know how to go about e4stablishing themselves in another member state.
A greater market will allow them to produce more competitively because they can utilize the economies of scale. For example if you produce for a market of 200,000 persons your cost will be higher than if you produce for a market which is 600,000 persons. So we hope that if the producers of goods and services utilize the regional arrangements, they'll be able to become more competitive in a globalize world so they can withstand competition from companies outside of the region."
So far only the single market aspect of the CSME has been implemented. The single economy will include changing to a single currency. That should be finalized by 2008. Jamaica, Barbados, Guyana, Trinidad, and Suriname are part of the single market.
