Dr Tony Martin provides fascinating details on the lobbying
by T&T’s first Prime Minister, Dr Eric Williams,
to obtain employment in a policy-making role in the Caribbean
in his introduction to the re-issue of the proceedings of
a 1943 Howard University conference titled The Future of the
Caribbean Economy.
As noted in last week’s column, Williams’ paper
at that conference set out key requirements for transformation
of Caribbean economies.
Williams was ultimately successful in gaining employment as
deputy chairman of the Caribbean Commission, from which he
was fired in 1955, catapulting (or engineering?) his entrance
into politics.
Williams went on to be Prime Minister for a quarter century.
His PNM party has had an even longer run in office more than
41 of the past 51 years.
Williams who died in March 1981, describes himself, in his
own biography, as having an “inner hunger.” The
question is for what?
This query must ultimately haunt virtually every human being:
what legacy am I leaving behind? This is particularly relevant
for those who have achieved decision-making power in the private,
civil and public sectors.
One way of accessing a legacy is in relation to stated objectives.
Williams, on this score, set out an economic agenda for the
future of the Caribbean in 1943 with three key components.
First was the necessity for regional collaboration—perceived
in terms of political federation—and linking the Caribbean
across the language groups.
Second was diversification of Caribbean economies away from
a dependence on externally-determined primary commodity production,
including encouraging domestic food production.
Third was a perceived supportive role of “tariff autonomy”
(resultant on achieving political independence) for the diversification
objective.
Outcomes of Caribbean unity objective?
We can give Williams and the PNM a passing mark in terms of
T&T’s contribution to the shift from the 1943 reality,
where Williams described Caribbean economies as “isolated
units.”
However, Williams’ initial enthusiasm for regional unity
waned in his later years, including a period in which he refused
to participate in Caricom meetings.
T&T now finds itself thrust into a regional leadership
position today, given our hydrocarbon boom.
The current government has been providing some helpful financial
support to the region, and T&T’s indigenous banks
and insurance companies also have been playing a significant
role in regional loan provision and equity acquisition.
This is, however, really a minimalist approach to potential
leadership.
There is a tremendous potential for the investment of a share
of T&T’s windfall in productive investments across
the region to the mutual benefit of all participants.
For this to be realised, there is need for a paradigm shift
from mimicry of the European Union to a regional co-operation
framework, incorporating but not limited to the confines of
the Caribbean Single Market and Economy.
In essence, a widening of the concept of regional economic
linkages is needed to address not merely intra-regional trade
in goods, services and capital, but also co-operation in addressing
strategic partnerships in non-regional trade and investment.
Food production
outcome?
Williams, in 1943, saw clearly that domestic food production
was central to economic independence. Unfortunately, this
never translated into sustained effort.
Rather, the ruling party’s agriculture policy has been
dominated by planting “houses” on the country’s
best agricultural lands: Diamond Estate (now Vale), River
Estate, Trincity, etc.
Diversification
outcome?
Williams, in 1943, also had great hopes in political independence
providing the “policy space” for an identified “tariff
autonomy” to foster domestic infant industries.
The approach originally used to achieve this objective was
that of inward-looking, import-substituting industrialisation
that failed largely, but not completely: witness the existence
of a T&T manufacturing sector.
Unfortunately, the manifest foreign exchange dependence of
this manufacturing sector (which became apparent in the last
economic bust of the mid-1980s) was followed by the onslaught
on all state support for industrial development, including
outward-looking industries.
Ironically, the very Caribbean tariff autonomy that Williams
identified in 1943 as central to the diversification thrust
is what appears to have been conceded to the European Union
in the just-concluded negotiations on a Caribbean Economic
Partnership Agreement.
Coming are renewed negotiations under the rubric of the World
Trade Organisation.
How will the PNM government’s approach to these talks
contribute to Williams’ legacy?
