EDITORIAL - Getting serious about CARICOM

Until now, the debate about Jamaica's relationship with the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) has been emotive and huffing.

The core of the issue is Jamaica's near US$1 billion trade deficit with the community, the bulk of which is with Trinidad and Tobago.

Jamaica mostly place the blame for this state of affairs on claims that Port-of-Spain breaks regional trading rules by providing energy subsidies to its manufacturers, who in turn cheat on the rules of origin for their products.

The flippant and extremists have made frothy calls for Jamaica to extricate itself from CARICOM, but have offered little else.

The more serious accusers, unfortunately, neither substantiated their accusations of cheating with evidence nor proffered formal challenges of the breaches. Nor were there much serious discussion about the structural deficiencies or economic policy failures that have weakened Jamaica's competitiveness against its community counterparts.

Things, however, may be turning for the better.

Recently, a handful of lobbyists have argued for Jamaica to invoke the safeguard provisions of article 43 of the CARICOM Treaty, under which member states with balance of payments problems may be allowed holidays of up to 18 months from their free-trade obligations to the community.

The Jamaican proponents of this idea say that Kingston's timeout should be for four years - the planned life of its new economic support agreement with the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

While Article 43 appears to contemplate measures such as quantitative relief of community imports, the suggestion here is for suspension of CARICOM's common external tariff (CET) and the application of duties on imports from the community. Such a scheme, they estimate, would raise around J$17 billion annually, helping to fix the government's fiscal problem.

Up to now, the Simpson Miller administration has shown no inclination for going this route, but has insisted that it will protect Jamaica's interest in the community - as it should.

The trade minister, Anthony Hylton, has added substance to this assertion. He announced in Parliament that he has, since last December, caused importers of lubricants from Trinidad and Tobago to pay interim duties on these products - allowable under the rules - in this case rule 9 - for the verification that products are of CARICOM origin.

The basis of Mr Hylton's action is a complaint by a local firm that the lubricant exported by the the state-owned Trinidadian firm, Petrotrin, was not of CARICOM origin. Port-of-Spain, despite being asked, and obligated to do so, had, after six months, not responded.

Mr Hylton has made it clear that his action was not proof that Port-of-Spain had in fact circumvented the rules, but was "a clear statement of the affirmative action that will be taken by the government of Jamaica to enforce trade rules, without fear or favour". It is, in part, a bit of public relations, muscle-flexing to appease the critics.

But the government is right. CARICOM has mechanisms to ensure that people play fair and to arbitrate disputes, including the Caribbean Court of Justice, which interprets the treaty. Jamaica should use them, rather than engage in a kind of simpering, self-declared martyrdom.

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