Not for the first time, leaders of the smaller Eastern Caribbean States (OECS) have complained about being treated as stepchildren in the wider Caribbean Community (Caricom) family of nations.
The issue of the alleged lack of regard for the smaller island nations came up during a recent summit of the nine-nation grouping, where it was raised by some leaders and delegates, more so by none other than Prime Minister Ralph Gonsalves of St. Vincent, who is the current chair of the OECS.
Some prime ministers are so angry and disheartened by what they regard as a continuing, if not worsening, pattern of offhand treatment by larger nations, that the heads of government are now openly wondering if it is not time to break away from the 15-nation grouping, amend the family arrangements, or negotiate bilateral agreements with individual nations.
Gonsalves, 78, who is facing general elections this year as he seeks a sixth consecutive term, used his elder statesman platform to complain about the tone deafness of the larger or so-called more developed nations in the bloc: Guyana, Belize, Jamaica, Suriname, Trinidad, and Barbados.
For example, Gonsalves singled out oil- and gas-rich Trinidad and Tobago (T&T) as a guilty neighbor, saying that authorities there seem to have little regard for the needs of his federation of multiple islands known as the Grenadines.
“Our country pays T&T annually, in excess of US$65 million,” he said. “We pay in hard foreign currency for visible exports from Trinidad, mainly petroleum products and manufactured goods, but our sister Caricom country cannot find less than a miserly $4 million U.S. in foreign exchange to pay for our agricultural produce.” He warned that “the OECS countries may well, most reluctantly by force of circumstances, have to put on the table the continued relevance of our participation in the Caricom single market and economy, while, of course, remaining in Caricom until the inequities are satisfied.”
The block and its associate members, mostly British colonies like Anguilla, are scheduled to meet at the main heads of government summit in western Jamaica in early July. Gonsalves said the woes of the OECS might well make the agenda.
He also suggested that T&T appears to want to drive merchants in the OECS out of the flour market and take it over completely. When the OECS complained, Trinidad, Jamaica, and Barbados resisted, but good sense only prevailed because Guyana, Haiti, Belize, and Suriname intervened. “We in Vincent and the Grenadines will draw a line in the sand on this. Next time, will the anchor hold?” Gonsalves asked
Gonsalves said there is a strong need for special treatment of and consideration for the economic limitations of the smaller nations. He argued that Caricom is yet to “carve out for the OECS, within its treaty arrangements, special treatment beyond general provisions for disadvantaged regions.”
Gonsalves also suggested that the OECS had signed on to single trading market arrangements in 2003 “with our eyes wide open,” but these arrangements have not always worked in the subgrouping’s favor. He wondered whether the time might have come to consider exiting Caricom.
Hours earlier, St. Lucian Opposition Leader Allen Michael Chastanet expressed similar sentiments to those of Gonsalves and others, contending that the relationship between the two groups is clearly not working.
“Sometimes we have to ask ourselves that question, because, certainly, when I was prime minister (2016–2021), I felt that we were being ignored,” Chastenet said. “I felt we were being disrespected. I felt so many times [that] we went to a meeting at Caricom and listened to the larger countries debate among themselves as if we were not even there, and reached no conclusion. Yet, we are members of Caricom [and] that is not working, and all the leaders sitting around this table all know that our relationship with Caricom is not working. Imagine if we had the tenacity to pull out of Caricom and renegotiate bilateral agreements with Jamaica, bilaterals with Trinidad, bilaterals with Guyana, and bilaterals with Barbados. Would we be better off?”
