We’re pleased to share a new book authored by Perry Douglas on Caribbean development titled “Applied intelligence – A Renaissance in New Thinking for Caribbean Prosperity in the 21st Century.”
You can find it on Amazon here.
Blog
-
BCCI/KNCCI Virtual Dialogue Series 1: Demystifying the Barbadian and Kenyan Markets
I am pleased to be facilitating this upcoming panel at the first session of the Barbados Chamber of Commerce and Industry (BCCI) and Kenya National Chamber of Commerce and Industry (KNCCI) Virtual Dialogue Series carded for Tuesday, March 21st at 8:30-10:00 am (Atlantic Standard Time).
This first session will be on Demystifying the Barbados and Kenya markets and features an all-star panel. If you’re an exporter, investor, businessperson, or are just generally interested in Africa-Caribbean trade, please register here:
https://lnkd.in/eefaiPQxSee the flyer for further details!
-
Revised Treaty of Chaguaramas to be amended to regulate M&A activity in CSME
Photo credit: CARICOM Secretariat
Alicia Nicholls
Competition policy within the CARICOM Single Market and Economy (CSME), particularly the need for merger control regulation, was one of the major items discussed at the recently held Forty-Fourth Regular Meeting of the Conference of Heads of Government of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) in the Bahamas last week (February 15-17, 2023).
The lengthy communique issued from the meeting revealed a packed agenda. Of interest to this author, of course, were the components dealing with continuing the consolidation of the CARICOM Single Market and Economy (CSME), especially because July this year will mark the regional grouping’s fiftieth anniversary.
Heads agreed that the Revised Treaty of Chaguaramas (RTC) would be amended to provide for the regulation of mergers and acquisitions in the CSME. This would be done on the basis of an approved Community Policy. They agreed that Member States should complete their internal consultations and approval processes on the Draft Policy on Mergers and Acquisitions in the CSME in time for the Council for Trade and Economic Development (COTED) to consider and approve the Policy in April 2023.
The CARICOM Competition Regime, as elaborated in Chapter 8 of the RTC, presently has three objectives (1) the promotion and maintenance of competition and enhancement of economic efficiency in production, trade and commerce, (2) the prohibition of anti-competitive business conduct which prevents, restricts or distorts competition or which constitutes the abuse of a dominant position in the market; and (3) the promotion of consumer welfare and protection of consumer interests. The Suriname-based CARICOM Competition Commission, along with the national commissions, is therefore a key institution for the functioning of a competitive CSME which is not harmed by anti-competitive conduct by businesses. However, currently, the CARICOM Competition Regime only regulates cross-border anti-competitive business conduct and the abuse of a dominant position. It does not deal with merger control regulation, which is the third aspect of competition policy. The Heads were also updated on the progress towards creating a dual role for the CARICOM Competition Commission (CCC) at the national and regional levels.
Asides from competition policy, the subject of progress towards completing the Draft Policy on a Regional Capital Market was also discussed. The Heads “called upon the Council for Finance and Planning (COFAP) and the Legal Affairs Committee to take the necessary action to ensure that the infrastructure for the regional capital market is largely in place within eighteen (18) months”.
They also supported COFAP’s decision to amend the Intra-CARICOM Double Taxation Agreement (ICDTA), through a Protocol on Treaty Shopping and Exchange of Information. Other topics discussed included advancing the CARICOM Agri-food systems agenda, the 50th anniversary celebrations, Afri-Exim Bank, the Bridgetown Initiative, Climate Change and Climate Finance, among others.
The full communique may be accessed here.
Alicia Nicholls, B.Sc., M.Sc., LL.B. is an international trade and development consultant and the founder of the Caribbean Trade Law and Development Blog http://www.caribbeantradelaw.com.
-
Rest in peace Ambassador Richard Bernal – Pillar of the Caribbean Trade & Development Community
Photo credit: The University of the West Indies
Alicia Nicholls
It is with profound sadness that my first blog post for the year 2023 is to express my condolences on the sudden passing of a pillar of the Caribbean trade and development community and a reader of this Blog, the late Ambassador Prof. Richard Bernal. To say that the Caribbean region has lost yet another a giant is an understatement. For me, it still has not completely sunk in.
Prof. Bernal’s incomparable achievements and contributions, both as an academic and practitioner in the trade and development economics arenas, are lengthy and will be rightfully ventillated in other spaces. Many who follow trade developments would undoubtedly best remember him for his role as a diplomat and trade negotiator, the director general of the then Caribbean Regional Negotiating Machinery (CRNM) and the lead negotiator of the CARIFORUM-European Union Economic Partnership Agreement. This was CARIFORUM countries’ first trade agreement with a developed country. Prof. Bernal’s book “Globalisation, Trade and Economic Development: The CARIFORUM-EU Economic Partnership Agreement” is compulsory 101 reading for an understanding of the EPA, the background behind its negotiation and the wider Caribbean economic development problematique. But there is much more to Prof. Bernal’s work than this. Others will no doubt write profusely on the many facets of his accomplished career and life as an economist, diplomat, educator, academic, negotiator over the next few days as we mourn his loss.
Prof Bernal was both an avid reader and writer. His writings were a quilt of measured, well-researched ideas woven expertly and drawn from his groundings in economics, trade, political economy, development policy and international affairs. At the heart of it all was a central trend, how can the Caribbean escape its current growth and development conundrum? His scholarship has undoubtedly informed, enthused and shaped my interests as a trade policy specialist from the time I was a fresh-faced student doing my Masters in International Trade Policy at The UWI Shridath Ramphal Centre for International Trade Policy & Services well over a decade ago. Even as recently as a few days ago I quoted Prof. Bernal in a journal article I am authoring. I continue to be inspired by and aspire towards his level of academic output. I was even happier when on one of his trips to Barbados, he kindly obliged my humble request to autograph my personal copies of two of his several books. I am an avid follower of his work and own copies of all his books.
While I did not know Prof. Bernal as well as others, I consider myself honoured to have made his acquaintance and privileged to have eventually met him in person. I have also enjoyed serving with him and many other regional luminaries as fellows in the Caribbean Policy Consortium. I deeply cherish the nuggets of wisdom and encouragement he shared with me in our correspondences.
His brilliant mind has physically left us. I however take some comfort in the fact that his voluminous publications list spanning books, journal articles, popular pieces and endless interviews, podcasts and webinars remain a rich repository of knowledge for future generations of trade and development practitioners, diplomats, specialists, scholars and students. These works contain his well-researched thinking and musings on key themes pervading the Caribbean development challenge – how do we achieve sustainable economic growth? How can trade assist this? How can we expand US-Caribbean relations for development? How can we make the growing Chinese-Caribbean relationship a mutually beneficial one? How has the Caribbean helped to shape international affairs even as small States?
I do hope that in recognition of his stellar contribution to the region’s corpus of research and literature on trade, international affairs and development issues, there will be some special library or unit established at The UWI where all his works could be accessed in a central place and/or a lecture series on the topics he held dear to his heart or a scholarship fund for students studying these issues established in his honour. I take this opportunity to express my deepest condolences to the late Ambassador Bernal’s family.
Walk good, Ambassador.
Alicia Nicholls, B.Sc., M.Sc., LL.B. is an international trade and development consultant and the founder of the Caribbean Trade Law and Development Blog http://www.caribbeantradelaw.com.
Caribbean Trade Law and Development 