Trade Barriers Within the CSME: The Reality of Under-Development

Ramesh Sarabjit

No 265619, 25th West Indies Agricultural Economics Conference, August 15-21, 2004, Suriname from Caribbean Agro-Economic Society

Abstract: The issue of barriers to regional trade is a much-debated issue, especially so in the context of the CSME where there is marked sector under-development and a distinction between MDCs and LDCs. Very often the essence of the argument lies in the so-called 'size of economies and levels of development'. The reality is however that within the CSME conscious efforts are made by Member States to achieve higher levels of economic coordination and collaboration and therefore enhanced economic growth and development. In the context of small economies there is undoubtedly need for some measure of trade policy discrimination, even within the CSME where there exists an uneven distribution of resources, and a host of vulnerable sectors and sub sectors. This paper attempts to locate the issue of barriers to regional trade within the context of the CSME. It addresses, the differences in size and levels of development of countries in the Caribbean region, resource endowments, the fragility of economic dependence on primary commodities and core sectors, and the need for trade sector support given increasing pressures to liberalize in the context of ongoing multilateral negotiations. The paper also seeks to explore in a limited context whether the revised Treaty of Chaguaramas adequately addresses issues pertaining to the sanctioning of regional trade barriers in the context of the CSME.

Keywords: Agricultural and Food Policy; Environmental Economics and Policy; International Development (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 14
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://ageconsearch.umn.edu/record/265619/files/wiae-2004-18.pdf (application/pdf)
https://ageconsearch.umn.edu/record/265619/files/wiae-2004-18.pdf?subformat=pdfa (application/pdf)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:ags:carc04:265619

DOI: 10.22004/ag.econ.265619

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in 25th West Indies Agricultural Economics Conference, August 15-21, 2004, Suriname from Caribbean Agro-Economic Society Contact information at EDIRC.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by AgEcon Search ().