Caribbean community (caricom)

Established in 1973, The Caribbean Community (also known under the name CARICOM) includes 15 nations of Central America – Guyana, Jamaica, Haiti, Dominica, Grenada, Trinidad and Tobago, St. Lucia, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, and some small island countries. It has NOT been very effective economically because the intergroup trade is rather small. However, as of late, CARICOM countries have declared their political will to achieve a much HIGHER degree of subregional cooperation and to try and practically FULLY INTEGRATE the fragile local economies in order to be able “to confront the FREE TRADE era”. Also, just like Mercosur, CARICOM began to show its desire to more actively participate in global affairs thus attracting attention of the EU and Japan.

CARICOM's main purposes are to promote economic integration and cooperation among its members, to ensure that the benefits of integration are equitably shared, and to coordinate foreign policy. Its major activities involve coordinating economic policies and development planning; devising and instituting special projects for the lessdeveloped countries within its jurisdiction; operating as a regional single market for many of its members (Caricom Single Market); and handling regional trade disputes. The secretariat headquarters is based in Georgetown, Guyana.

Since the establishment of the Caribbean Community by the mainly Englishspeaking parts of the Caribbean region, CARICOM has become multilingual in practice with the addition of Dutch speakingSuriname on 4 July 1995 and French (and Haitian Kreyòl) speaking Haiti on 2 July 2002. Furthermore, it was suggested that Spanish should also become a working language. In July 2012, CARICOM announced that they were considering making French and Dutch official languages.

In 2001, the heads of government signed a Revised Treaty of Chaguaramas thus clearing the way for the transformation of the idea for a Common Market aspect of CARICOM into instead a Caribbean (CARICOM) Single Market and Economy. Part of the revised treaty among member states includes the establishment and implementation of the Caribbean Court of Justice. Since 2013 the CARICOMbloc along with the Dominican Republic is tied to the European Commission via an Economic Partnership Agreement known as CARIFORUM signed in 2008. The treaty grants all members of the European Union and CARIFORUM equal rights in terms of trade and investment. Within the agreement under Article 234, the European Court of Justice also carries dispute resolution mechanisms between CARIFORUM and the European Union states.

In November 2000 in Tokyo, at the first ministerial level meeting between Japan and the delegations of 14 Caricom countries a comprehensive policy document has been signed which is aimed at establishing a LEGAL FRAMEWORK for strengthening cooperation in economic field and in a wide range of other areas in the 21^st century. Japan is ready to help integrate this rather underdeveloped tropical region into the global economy through enhanced development aid and creation of better conditions for Caricom in its attempts to attract FOREIGN INVESTMENT.

Besides humanitarian motives, Japan has also two practical considerations. The one is connected with its hope to gain permanent MEMBERSHIP on the UN Security Council. The second have to do with the use of NUCLEAR ENERGY. In fact, the Caribbean offers a convenient route for ships transporting spent nuclear fuel back to Japan after reprocessing in Europe.

* In Asia the most im­por­tant sub­re­gion­al PO­LIT­I­CAL and EC­O­NOM­IC or­gan­i­za­tion is the As­so­ci­a­tion of South East Asian Na­tions (AS­EAN) which you al­ready well know.

The ASEAN is a political and economic organisation of ten countries located in Southeast Asia, which was formed on 8 August 1967 by Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore and Thailand. Since then, membership has expanded to include Brunei, Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar (Burma) and Vietnam. Its aims include accelerating economic growth, social progress, sociocultural evolution among its members, protection of regional peace and stability, and opportunities for member countries to discuss differences peacefully.

ASEAN covers a land area of 4.46 million km², which is 3% of the total land area of Earth, and has a population of approximately 600 million people, which is 8.8% of the world's population. The sea area of ASEAN is about three times larger than its land counterpart. In 2012, its combined nominal GDP had grown to more than US$2.3 trillion. If ASEAN were a single entity, it would rank as the sixth largest economy in the world, behind the US, China, Japan, India and Germany.

On 28 July 1995, Vietnam became the seventh member. Laos and Myanmar (Burma) joined two years later on 23 July 1997. Cambodia was to have joined together with Laos and Burma, but was deferred due to the country's internal political struggle. The country later joined on 30 April 1999, following the stabilization of its government.

During the 1990s, the bloc experienced an increase in both membership and drive for further integration. In 1990, Malaysia proposed the creation of an East Asia Economic Caucus comprising the then members of ASEAN as well as the People's Republic of China, Japan, and South Korea, with the intention of counterbalancing the growing influence of the United States in the AsiaPacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) and in the Asian region as a whole. This proposal failed, however, because of heavy opposition from the United States and Japan. Despite this failure, member states continued to work for further integration and ASEAN Plus Three was created in 1997.

The crea­tion of­ the AS­EAN Free Trade Ar­ea (AF­TA) is a new be­gin­ning, but the nar­row base of MU­TU­AL ex­change of goods does NOT prom­ise BIG SUC­CESS of this ar­range­ment, at least in the near future. As for the ASEAN plus Three and ASEAN plus Six groupings men­tioned in Top­ic 9, their fu­ture role is NOT quite clear yet, but can be con­sid­er­a­ble, especially if they se­cure in­stru­men­tal Jap­a­nese par­tic­i­pa­tion and find ad­e­quate forms in re­la­tions with Aus­tra­lia and New Zea­land.

*In 1995, the South Asian Pref­e­ren­tial Trad­ing Ar­range­ment (SAP­TA) was rat­i­fied by the mem­ber states of SAARC – the South Asian As­so­ci­a­tion for Re­gion­al Coop­er­a­tion, that in­cludes In­dia, Pa­ki­stan, Ban­gla­desh, Bhu­tan, Ne­pal, Sri Lan­ka and the Mal­dives.

In the late 1990s, a NEW sub­re­gion­al or­gan­i­za­tion in Asia has been es­tab­lished un­der the name "BIMSTEC” – ab­bre­vi­a­tion from Ban­gla­desh, In­dia, Myanmar, Sri Lan­ka, Thai­land Ec­o­nom­ic Coop­er­a­tion (since 2004, it also includes Nepal and Bhutan).

There is another name to this organization – the Bay of Bengal Initiative for MultiSectoral Technical and Economic Cooperation, with the same abbreviation – BIMSTEC. Whatsoever the origin of this short name, this group of countries around the Bay of Bengal aims at coop­er­a­tion pro­jects in the sec­tors of TRADE, IN­VEST­MENT, IN­DUS­TRY, TECH­NOL­O­GY, HU­MAN RE­SOURC­ES, TOUR­ISM, AG­RI­CUL­TURE, EN­ER­GY, IN­FRA­STRUC­TURE and TRANS­PORT.

In 2004, SIX countries of BIMSTEC (without Bangladesh) signed a “draft” (or “framework”) FREE TRADE AREA AGREEMENT that in the near future can serve as a LINK be­tween the TWO emerg­ing FTA in South and South­ East Asia – i.e., between the SAP­TA and the AF­TA.

In 1997, rep­re­sen­ta­tives of EIGHT Is­lam­ic coun­tries of dif­fer­ent re­gions which gath­ered in Tur­key adopt­ed an am­bi­tious scheme to create their own IN­TER­NA­TION­AL GROUP with the goal of pro­mot­ing EC­O­NOM­IC and TRADE ties. Named the "De­vel­op­ing Eight" (or D8), the group in­cludes Tur­key, Egypt, Ni­ge­ria, Iran, Pa­ki­stan, Ban­gla­desh, Ma­lay­sia and In­do­ne­sia. This is a NEW step in en­dea­vors to achieve IS­LAM­IC UNI­TY and to create a kind of­ PO­LIT­I­CAL COUN­TER­BAL­ANCE to the Group of Sev­en developed countries.

In May 2001, at a meeting in Rabat (Morocco), four Arab Mediterranean countries – Egypt, Jordan, Morocco and Tunisia – set up a FREE TRADE ZONE, which would also be opened to other Arab countries. It was regarded as a FIRST STEP toward creating what is called the “Great Arab Free Trade Zone” sometime in the future.

* The ef­forts aimed at­ mul­ti­na­tion­al mar­ket de­vel­op­ment in Af­ri­ca are char­ac­ter­ized by A GREAT DEAL of ac­tiv­i­ty but LIT­TLE progress. This is un­der­stand­a­ble in light of the PO­LIT­I­CAL IN­STA­BIL­I­TY and very WEAK EC­O­NOM­IC BASE on which Af­ri­ca had to build. Po­lit­i­cal sov­e­reign­ty is a NEW enough phe­nom­e­non for most Af­ri­can na­tions, and they are re­luc­tant to give away any part of it with­out spe­cif­ic and tan­gi­ble ben­e­fits in re­turn.

How­ev­er, TWO main ap­proach­es have been em­ployed to in­te­grate Af­ri­ca.

FIRST – at­tempts to bring to­geth­er NAR­ROW GROUPS of neigh­bor­ing na­tions em­pha­siz­ing ec­o­nom­ic growth in the IN­DUS­TRI­AL SEC­TOR – like the Ec­o­nom­ic Com­mu­ni­ty of Cen­tral Af­ri­can States (EC­CAS) in­clud­ing, among oth­ers, Came­roon, Cen­tral Af­ri­can Re­pub­lic, Chad, Con­go, Gab­on, and Zaire.

Currently there are multiple regional blocs in Africa, also known as Regional Economic Communities (RECs), many of which have overlapping memberships. The RECs consist primarily of trade blocs and, in some cases, involve some political and military cooperation. Most of these RECs form the "pillars" of African Economic Community (AEC), many of which also have an overlap in some of their member states. Due to this high proportion of overlap it is likely that some states with several memberships will eventually drop out of one or more RECs. Several of these pillars also contain subgroups with tighter customs and/or monetary unions of their own.

SEC­OND – more GRAN­DI­OSE schemes em­brac­ing a LARGE NUM­BER of na­tions of the Black Con­ti­nent and aimed at bring­ing about wide sub­re­gion­al TRADE and INVESTMENT LIB­ER­AL­I­ZA­TION and rath­er loose COOP­ER­A­TION in such spheres as trans­por­ta­tion, ed­u­ca­tion, la­bor, nat­u­ral re­sourc­es, ag­ri­cul­ture and in­dus­tri­al de­vel­op­ment.

Of this type is, for ex­am­ple, the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA) which is a free trade area with nineteen member states stretching from Libya to Swaziland. COMESA was formed in December 1994, replacing a Preferential Trade Area which had existed since 1981. Nine of the member states formed a free trade area in 2000 (Djibouti, Egypt, Kenya, Madagascar, Malawi, Mauritius, Sudan, Zambia and Zimbabwe), with Rwanda and Burundi joining the FTA in 2004, the Comoros and Libya in 2006, and Seychelles in 2009.

In 2008, COMESA agreed to an expanded freetrade zone including members of two other African trade blocs, the East African Community (EAC) and the Southern Africa Development Community (SADC). The group is also considering a common visa scheme to boost tourism.

COMESA is one of the pillars of the African Economic Community (AEC).

In its turn, the African Economic Community (AEC) is an organization of African Union states establishing grounds for mutual economic development among the majority of countries of the continent. The stated goals of the organization include the creation of free trade areas, customs unions, a single market, a central bank, and a common currency (see African Monetary Union) thus establishing an economic and monetary union.

It was in 2002 that the Organization for African Unity, famous with its inefficiency and bureaucracy, was reorganized under a new name – the African Union (AU). However, Africa’s POLITICAL unity must become much more than a slogan before anything can be achieved along the lines of regional ECONOMIC cooperation.

Of the same type as COMESA is also the Ec­o­nom­ic Com­mu­ni­ty of West Af­ri­can States (ECOW­AS) – prob­ably the most am­bi­tious of the Af­ri­can re­gion­al groups. ECOW­AS em­brac­es 16 coun­tries with a pop­u­la­tion over 200 mil­lion, in­clud­ing Gha­na, Guin­ea, Ma­li, Ni­ge­ria, Se­ne­gal, Sier­ra Le­one and To­go. In re­gard to this group, ex­perts sug­gest that it has the BEST CHANC­ES of suc­ceed­ing.

Yet, at the mo­ment, it is safe to say that of ALL the world re­gion­s’ in­te­gra­tion schemes, Af­ri­can at­tempts have been the LEAST SUC­CESS­FUL.

Despite overall UNDERDEVELOPMENT and POVERTY, many PARTS of Africa are ex­treme­ly rich in RE­SOURC­ES and get ev­er more mo­men­tum in their IN­DUS­TRI­AL­I­ZA­TION ef­forts. As a re­sult, in the last sev­er­al years the Black Continent be­gan to at­tract at­ten­tion in the West­ern po­lit­i­cal and busi­ness cir­cles, in­clud­ing Amer­i­can es­tab­lish­ment.

The same can be said about Ja­pan which ev­er more of­ten looks be­yond its coop­er­a­tion with neigh­bors in Asia and tries to ex­plore op­por­tu­ni­ties of­fered by oth­er con­ti­nents, first of all by Lat­in Amer­i­ca, but al­so by Af­ri­ca.

Since 1993, Japan more or less regularly hoists the socalled To­kyo In­ter­na­tion­al Con­fer­ence on Af­ri­can De­vel­op­ment (TIC­AD), In 1995, about 80 coun­tries were rep­re­sent­ed at TIC­AD II (53 Af­ri­can states, 16 aiddo­nor na­tions, and 11 Asian coun­tries, in­clud­ing Chi­na, Ma­lay­sia, In­do­ne­sia and South Ko­rea). Al­so, 40 in­ter­na­tion­al or­gan­i­za­tions par­tic­i­pat­ed in that largescale event. The TICAD V has taken place in 2013.