Unfinished Caricom business

It has become absurdly fashionable in some circles to dismiss Caricom as a wasteful, irrelevant enterprise worthy of dissolution and relegation to the garbage bin of history.

Over the years, I have realised that even greater than the malice generated by false notions of socio-cultural, geographic and other forms of inherent individual strength and weakness is the pervasive ignorance surrounding the nature of the institution our community of nations has built, and the misplaced expectations that accompany it.

The process of “leaving” Caricom is more than getting up in disgust in the middle of an unsatisfactory stage performance. For, while doing so, attachments to various appurtenances of the theatre, including the main stage and other pieces of infrastructure, including the ceiling, do not remain undisturbed.

Over the past 53 years of Caricom, its mandates and institutional responses have grown to extensive and diverse degrees. There are now, for instance, almost 30 specialised and complementary autonomous and semi-autonomous institutions that serve as key pillars of the integration process.

I have offered the reminder numerous times that, among these institutions, is the Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ), headquartered in Port of Spain.

It serves as the legal forum through which 12 member states, including T&T, may resolve disputes arising from the Revised Treaty of Chaguaramas. This is the mechanism now being invoked at T&T’s insistence in relation to the appointment of the Caricom Secretary-General.

Attorney General John Jeremie is familiar with CCJ processes, having appeared as attorney for Trinidad Cement Ltd in the 2022 case against the government of T&T. He also appeared, together with Keith Scotland and others, as counsel in a matter - [2022] CCJ 15 (AJ) GY - involving the appellate jurisdiction of the court at the height of the 2020 post-election debacle in Guyana.

Though the court currently serves as the court of final appeal for five member states: Barbados, Belize, Dominica, Guyana, and Saint Lucia, our country has, in this regard, been very much “in the CCJ”, albeit through other means.

The recent July 7 appellate judgment of the CCJ, to cite another example – [2026] CCJ 8 (AJ) BZ – features the prominent involvement of former Attorney General Anand Ramlogan in an election boundaries case related to Belize.

There are professionals far more qualified than I to challenge the nonsense surrounding T&T's alleged non-engagement with the court – “we not in the CCJ” - and I remain surprised that the Law Association has never undertaken a rigorous public awareness campaign to address this endemic ignorance, even at senior levels.

Among things to also be considered in the “get up and leave” sentiment is the fact that Caricom “entanglements” include intimate involvement in major institutions including the Caribbean Public Health Agency (CARPHA) - which played a leading role in the COVID-19 pandemic - and the Caribbean Disaster Emergency Management Agency (CDEMA), to name just two.

Also consider the roles of the Caricom Implementation Agency for Crime and Security (IMPACS), the Caribbean Examinations Council (CXC), and the Caribbean Agricultural Research and Development Institute (CARDI).

There are others that play leading roles in important areas such as climate change, telecommunications, renewable energy, regional standards and quality setting, tourism, fisheries, and meteorology.

Now, if you find the time ahead of the World Cup Final, have a look at the communiqué emerging from the 51st Caricom Heads meeting in Saint Lucia last week.

There, you will find joint reflections on some of the more urgent matters of today, not the least being Caribbean's vulnerabilities and hazards that are transnational in nature. Consider the impact on our southern coastline from the earthquakes in Venezuela.

Hurricanes also do not respect maritime boundaries. Criminal networks move across jurisdictions. Climate finance negotiations are conducted in global fora where numbers matter. Digital transformation cannot be addressed through fragmented national policies. Food insecurity is shaped by conflicts occurring thousands of miles away.

Implicit in these observations alone, you find that the argument for integration has become stronger, not weaker.

At a time of deep geopolitical turbulence, climate vulnerability, democratic uncertainty and technological disruption, the proposition that some of us should somehow retreat from integration is not merely mistaken. It is absurd.

Importantly, and as I pointed out last week right here, the politics of integration do not match the energy and aspirations of young people and ordinary citizens.

The Caricom project also includes a considerable workload of unfinished business – most of which is specifically relevant to our ability to engage current and emerging challenges. We are horsing around with this at our peril, T&T!