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Caribbean Countries Should Integrate or be Left Behind

Alicia Nicholls – Caribbean Trade Law and Development blog A few days ago I had the pleasure of being on the Regional Integration panel at the 17th Annual SALISES Conference held this year in Barbados where I presented a paper co-authored with founder and president of the African, Caribbean and Pacific Young Professionals Network (ACP…

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Secretary General, Irwin La Rocque
Secretary General, Irwin La Rocque
Alicia Nicholls – Caribbean Trade Law and Development blog

A few days ago I had the pleasure of being on the Regional Integration panel at the 17th Annual SALISES Conference held this year in Barbados where I presented a paper co-authored with founder and president of the African, Caribbean and Pacific Young Professionals Network (ACP YPN), Miss Yentyl Williams. The consensus all the panelists had reached in our papers was that as small fish in a very large pond, Caribbean countries are facing a growing swell of global trade and other socio-economic tides which are deepening our marginalisation in the global economy.

We argued that the region desperately needed to deepen and widen its integration process or face being further relegated to the back of the global shoal. Of course, what we were saying was not novel and indeed, has been one of the oldest and most compelling justifications for the regional integration project.

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169 responses to “Caribbean Countries Should Integrate or be Left Behind”

  1. Due Diligence Avatar
    Due Diligence

    PUDRYR, David et al

    WOW

    I thought I was asking a simple question when I asked

    Can someone please explain this Bitt Shit?

    Wonder if BIDC, MOF, Guv of CBB et al asked the same question?

  2. de pedantic Dribbler Avatar
    de pedantic Dribbler

    double oh lawd @pieceuhderockyeahright April 7, 2016 at 3:22 AM….I had not come back to this blog for a few days so when I popped in and started to read all this stuff about bitcoin and contactless tech and then ‘block-chain’ I thought I had dropped into some alternate universe..

    … then I read your comment “Bitcoin technology is not new…” and said ‘phew, ok still on planet earth’!

    Like you said above anyone who is enamored with ‘bit-coin’ and does not do the due diligence of which you spoke to ferret details are quite delinquent…the stories on the folks who have already been convicted re this tech seamy side; its sordid use as a means of money laundering; its use as a pay system for criminal activity and too of course connections to dark-web and things like that us average dribblers do NOT understand.

    Surely like any new tech it may evolve in something awesome but at the moment it has more potential to cause a tsunami that craters the world monetary system than anything overarchingly positive.

    Anyhow, you said it absolutely well above…this is a mere coda of my pedantic dribbling….

    I gone

  3. MoneyBrain Avatar
    MoneyBrain

    Bushie/ David
    How can anyone be so naive/ stupid to TRUST Panama with major quantities of their $$$???
    If some powerful person teeffss your money, who would U complain to? I save some TAX say 25c on the $ BUT lost my $!

    These Corrupt Bastards in the Govts and Corp World need some serious DISCIPLINE! Lock dem up and give them a course wid the Tamarind Rod or Birch! The World has become FAR TOO EASY pun criminals, they must pay wid the skin pun their backs when they transgress, it makes the correct Impact! Mental and physical!

    Regarding inversions, the Obama Admin should have negotiated a comprehensive deal to bring onshore the over US$2TRILLION of Corp $ residing Offshore. The concept should include much lower Tax rates eg 10%, with agreement regarding TRAINING current and potential employees especially with Tech jobs where their HS Math skills are totally inadequate. The US requires an Apprenticeship System similar to Germany. US also needs to revamp the Education system, adopting Computer based learning for Math and other Science subjects that are critical to the Tech World. It is laughable that Singapore, Taiwan, Sth Korea, China, India and many more are superior in this respect. All the Presidents in the last 40 years have FAILED miserably to engender this type of thinking!

    Inversions in and of themselves are difficult to control as the top Tax Lawyers will develop a very sophisticated alternative system, that is why they make mucho $$$. Either way the Pols will find a method of “assisting their pals” regrets I meant masters! Where are the Big Buckaroos going to come from for the next election/ exotic vacation etc?

    The US also urgently needs to revamp this ridiculouly long, expensive electoral season. The Westminster system is better, the internal Party members choose the leader as they are in a better (if not perfect position) to know the prospects. (In Canada, the Ont Provincial Conservatives have managed to select the wrong Leader for 12 yrs BUT the Fed Liberals cleverly selected the Prince of Waste, Trudeau)

  4. de pedantic Dribbler Avatar
    de pedantic Dribbler

    Just to add to my earlier remarks above: contact-less techology is very OLD, very!

    Bitcoin is much newer as a comparative technology but frankly it is old enough that I was quite surprised that folks here were unfamiliar.

    @David, unfortunately the treasury Dept will never really slam the door on inversions. As others have pointed out its a game of bending the rules to gain the greatest profits…like the fair-ground game ‘whack-a-mole’.

    This Pfizer-Allergan deal or rather the sanctions to stop it are but the latest over the years in a series of similar actions (by Treasury) to curtail the process of US companies ‘going’ overseas to avoid taxes – inversion; as its now the new buzz word.

    So companies will regroup and examine the rules to see how they can work around…now its more difficult and this particular deal may be history but more will be tried in different guises of that we can be assured.

  5. MoneyBrain Avatar
    MoneyBrain

    ONLY a bloody idiot would trust anything to do with the intersection of $$$$ and Cybernetics!

    Far too many geniuses in Russia, China et al that will gladly infiltrate at the opportune moment. I dont even feel comfortable in the Cnd and other Banks farless.

    The Govts could conduct Bail INS and take ownership of significant percentage of one’s cash a la Cyprus, provisions have been made in recent Nation’s Budgets. It is an unprecedented Financial World in which we live.

  6. David Avatar
    David

    @Dee Word

    Flight of capital to the South has slowed and will continue to do so for many reasons. Look to see significant changes in US laws affecting this business in the near future, the Panama Leaks…

    Contact less technology is not new however given the increase and ubiquitous mobile phone (and converging technologies) there is now cost effective implementation and higher adoption.

  7. Well Well & Consequences Avatar
    Well Well & Consequences

    MoneyB…you talk about the geniuses in China etc, there are many tech geniuses from the Caribbean who not only went to university in North America but interact with the same Asian and South East Asian geniuses on a daily basis, they have their own closely knit world and tech environment.

    Caribbean people need to stay the hell away from yhe Bitcoin scam. There are encryption specialists would make you dizzy with what they know, codes they can write and codes they can break.

  8. MoneyBrain Avatar
    MoneyBrain

    WW
    Well aware of Cbean Tech geniuses like Alan Emtage who developed the first internet thingy, a graduate of HC and Bdos Scholar. They dont tend to have a reputation for criminal activity to my knowledge but the Russians especially are very active. Who says that here are not some very crooked, nasty Whiteys? Not I!

  9. Well Well & Consequences Avatar
    Well Well & Consequences

    MoneyB…was not talking about Emtage, he should be oldish now…the new batch of Caribbean geniuses just graduated in the last 5 years, none are criminals, all brilliant and well capable…just highlighting what they can do, dont need to resort to criminal acts, they command the best salaries around the world and have cornered the tech job market…but very low profile…they definitely dont need to participate in any bitcoin scam.

  10. Well Well & Consequences Avatar
    Well Well & Consequences

    MoneyB. ..because of my close relation to one of these techies, believe it or not, I have met some young white Russians who are not into criminal enterprises re tech world, maybe it’s the older ones, younger folk are developing their own wsy forward without the criminal element, a whole new frontier.

  11. David Avatar
    David

    Caribbean countries should integrate eh.

    http://www.jamaicaobserver.com/news/JLP-serious-about-suspending-relations-with-Caricom—Holness_14658376

  12. Hants Avatar
    Hants

    buh wait ????? “eh”? David you is a Canadian ? lol

    On a serious note Caribbean integration is not likely to happen in our lifetime.

  13. Exclaimer Avatar
    Exclaimer

    @ David,

    Have you seen this story published in the Jamaica Observer. Unbelievable!

    http://www.jamaicaobserver.com/latestnews/Union-wants-Antigua-gov-t-to-rescind-decision-to-establish-embassy-in-Iraq

  14. MoneyBrain Avatar
    MoneyBrain

    Locating in Iraq makes Passport sales easier!
    Who cares when some “immigrant” blows up the Cbean and Tourist trade????????????

  15. ac Avatar
    ac

    how come Trinidad always refusing entry to Jamaican nationals and jamaica never take them to the CCJ, Remember in the Shanique Myrie case whether rich or poorCarribbean govts cannot stop Caricom nationals from entering a country that has signed on to the Caricom agreements

  16. David Avatar
    David

    @Exclaimer

    Incredible, it is all about accessing funds from non traditional sources. You should recall Guyana already has a relationshiop.

  17. Colonel Buggy Avatar
    Colonel Buggy

    One wonders how Barbados came out in this survey . as the Government has Millions tied up in new homes that remain unoccupied for various reasons, yet almost daily we see in the press, Bajans living in conditions almost as bad as in Haiti. And the pipsqueak Minister of Housing is planning on building more high rise apartment blocks in Church Village, the City.

    http://dominicanewsonline.com/news/homepage/news/general/caribbean-countries-need-billions-to-deal-with-housing/

  18. TheGazer Avatar
    TheGazer

    @Exclaimer
    Thanks for providing that link about Antigua wanting an embassy in Iraq.
    I can only conclude that the location was identified by throwing darts at a map of the world.
    It defies logic.

  19. Hants Avatar
    Hants

    http://www.barbadostoday.bb/2016/04/09/clico-pain/

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