{
  "id": "RL34308",
  "type": "CRS Report",
  "typeId": "REPORTS",
  "number": "RL34308",
  "active": false,
  "source": "EveryCRSReport.com",
  "versions": [
    {
      "source": "EveryCRSReport.com",
      "id": 341352,
      "date": "2008-01-07",
      "retrieved": "2016-04-07T03:51:38.777550",
      "title": "CARICOM: Challenges and Opportunities for Caribbean Economic Integration",
      "summary": "In 1973, the smaller, largely English-speaking countries of the Eastern Caribbean launched the Caribbean Community and Common Market (CARICOM), an integration plan intended to coordinate and enhance the collective economic and social development of 15 countries. After three decades of incremental success, CARICOM\u2019s strategy for achieving complete economic integration now rests on implementing the Caribbean Single Market and Economy (CSME), formally established on January 1, 2006, and intended to be fully in place by 2015. CARICOM is a highly trade-dependent region undergoing major changes to its economic relationships with the world. Adjusting to these changes through the CSME is its primary development challenge. To realize the CSME vision, the member countries would have to implement considerably deeper commitments to integration.\nThe Caribbean Basin has been a long-standing strategic interest of the United States. The success of CARICOM, as well as the continued stability of the region, have important implications for U.S. trade, investment, immigration, drug interdiction, and national security policies. Although small in size, CARICOM\u2019s trade and investment relationship with the United States may become a more prominent issue as the region adjusts to the changing external environment.\nCARICOM faces dual challenges in its quest for economic integration through the CSME. First, it must complete the intraregional integration scheme, including tightening a loose common external tariff and intraregional trade policy, integrating more fully labor and capital markets, and deepening \u201cfunctional cooperation\u201d \u2013 pooling resources to improve efficiency in the delivery of public services. Second, it must devise and implement strategies for \u201cinserting\u201d the CARICOM economies into a dynamic and competitive global economy in the wake of expiring preferential trade arrangements with its two largest trade partners, the United States and the European Union (EU).\nTwo trade policy issues command immediate attention. Implementing the EU Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA), completed in December 2007, is the first. The EPA is a reciprocal, WTO-compliant accord that replaces unilateral preferential arrangements in place since 1975. Second, the Caribbean Basin Trade Partnership Act (CBTPA) preferences will expire on September 30, 2008, unless extended by the U.S. Congress. Although these preferences currently apply to only seven CARICOM members and have already been eroded considerably by U.S. free trade agreements with other countries in the region, CARICOM strongly advocates their renewal and expansion as it evaluates the costs and benefits of pursuing a reciprocal FTA of its own with the United States. This report evaluates CARICOM\u2019s development and implications for U.S. foreign economic policy. It will be updated periodically. For more on Caribbean issues, see CRS Report RL34157, Caribbean-U.S. Relations: Issues in the 110th Congress, by Mark P. Sullivan, and CRS Report RL33951, U.S. Trade Policy and the Caribbean: From Trade Preferences to Free Trade Agreements, by J. F. Hornbeck.",
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      "typeId": "REPORTS",
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  "topics": [
    "Foreign Affairs"
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}