OECS shouldn’t form unitary state with T&T

07.MAR.08

Editor: There is a story coming out of the CMC from Trinidad about a Southern Caribbean Union. This story appears in the Business section of the Jamaica Gleaner newspaper of 2008-03-03.{{more}}

It says that the announcement was made by SVG Prime Minister Dr. Ralph Gonsalves. The islands involved are, at the moment, Trinidad and Tobago, Grenada and SVG. It further says that Dr. Vaughan Lewis and Dr. Cuthbert Joseph are to be approached to conduct a feasibility study. T&T’s Manning says that his country is always prepared to enter into a political union arrangement with whichever islands find that acceptable – which is precisely what Dr. Eric Williams offered us back in 1962.

Our PM seems to have been toying with this idea for some time.

I am not in agreement with it. I have always thought that SVG and St.Lucia should form very close economic and political links, becoming, if possible, a unitary state. If these two can make it work, then they can pave the way for Grenada and Dominica to enter, and later, any other states that may be interested.

We should consider closer political ties with T&T only after the majority of the OECS countries constitute an entity, and even then, we should not form a unitary state with Trinidad, UNLESS they agree that the capital of that unitary state will not be in T&T.

Cedric B Harold