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– Caricom Secretary General“The question of the single economy in my view has always been a difficult one to achieve,” said Secretary General of the Caricom Secretariat,wholesale nfl jerseys, Edwin Carrington, of the Caribbean Single Economy recently.His remarks came during a forum held at the Caricom Secretariat at Turkeyen, intended to enlighten media operatives of the issues likely to be addressed at the upcoming Heads of Government meeting.Caricom Secretary General, Edwin CarringtonAccording to Carrington the implementation of the Caribbean Single Economy has not progressed at a rate that was expected by the Secretariat. And because of the delayed pace of achieving the objective, Economic Advisor to the Secretary General, Dr Maurice Odle, said that there has been an extension of the process to the year 2015.“This matter is a difficult exercise. We are dealing with some of the most ticklish and sensitive economic integration matters and there is a feeling that the governments are somewhat uncomfortable because they are feeling that they will be relinquishing some of their sovereignty.”But according to Dr Odle, “We have a different take on the matter. We feel you are pooling your sovereignty and not relinquishing it.”He, however, noted that there are some areas in which progress has been made. He recalled that last Thursday there were discussions on the matter and there has been some improvement with respect to the whole issue of convertibility. There has also been progress as it relates to institution building, he noted, pointing to the implementation of Chapter Seven regarding the Caricom Development Fund.The Fund, he said, is in place and deals with issues relating to both the Single Market and the Single Economy.But it is with respect to macroeconomic policies, Dr Odle believes, that the difficulties of the implementation lie.“We have been dealing for example with two instruments, one relating to finance capital, that is the Caricom Financial Services Agreement and another relating to investment capital, that is the Caricom Investment Code, and we have not made as much progress as we like. These instruments have been around for some time and we are really on the verge of reaching an agreement and on the verge of them being signed by heads of Government, but every time we actually approach the tape, some governments say they want to have another look at the matter. This is a bit frustrating but we are pressing on and hopefully some day we will have those instruments actually signed,” Dr Odle speculated.And according to him there are some other important matters that are being dealt with as part of the whole issue of the creation of the single economy, something that has been engaging the Secretariat for some time. He said that efforts are being made to examine the business of fiscal integration at the level of the corporate taxation, at the level of fiscal incentive and also through the general fiscal harmonisation process in which account will be taken of not only direct but also indirect taxation.“We are also involved in a number of other areas which are fairly difficult but which nevertheless are essential to the single economy integration process. In essence there are some encouraging signs and at the same time there are some frustrating times,” Dr Odle said of the Single Economy.Secretary General Carrington has however taken comfort in the fact that even the European Union has not taken the steps in establishing a single economy.“They have reached a single market. They got there in 1992…it took them 35 years. We have gotten there in our own way in 33 years from 1973 to 2006. In this integration process there is never equal steps and progress, sometimes you make a quick progress, sometimes you stagnate for long periods and sometimes you even fizz out,” said Carrington.As a result, he highlighted that efforts will be made to examine, even closer, if all of the elements that were set out originally in the ambitious single economy objective can ever be achieved and if so, by when.Carrington also divulged that there are elements that are of concern to him such as the Caricom Development Fund which now carries several millions of dollars, which is in fact part of the single economy objective and not just the single market.“The distinction between single economy and single market is really a didactic instrument, a mechanism for conceptualising how we do it but they are not different, they are interlocked.The same difficulty of getting into a single economy did not present itself to developing the fund which we now have.”The Caribbean Court of Justice he said can also be looked at in like manner as all members of state are committed to it, making it a part of the single economy.“It is a matter which involves a degree of pooling sovereignty. That court has exclusive and final authority to discuss and decide on matters in the treaty. No other court can do that, every other court has had to cede that authority, and countries have acceded to the CCJ. Isn’t that a measure of giving up of sovereignty and pooling of sovereignty?” the Secretary General questioned.He speculated that sometimes people can become “confused and bamboozled” by the workings of the single economy.In light of this development, he said that there is need to reach the deepest level of integration possible, even as he pointed out that the process does not depend on Governments alone but on the people as well.“Government sometimes cannot go, in some cases, where the people will not tolerate and there you have a process of educating the people more and more, showing them the benefits of going further steps of integration and that is the way you can go as far as desirable. We have a lot of work to do to make sure we get as common an economy as we can,” the Secretary General asserted.