BRIDGETOWN, Barbados – The Caribbean Community (Caricom) Private Sector Organisation (CPSO) has forcefully reiterated its dedication to regional unity and the Caricom Single Market and Economy (CSME) framework. This declaration comes during a period of heightened diplomatic friction among Caribbean leaders regarding the strategic orientation of the 15-nation bloc.
As an officially recognized associate institution within Caricom, the CPSO emphasized its collaborative efforts with private enterprises and business associations to propel initiatives aligned with the CSME’s foundational goals. This economic arrangement guarantees the unrestricted movement of goods, services, labor, and skills across member states. The organization highlighted the CSME’s demonstrable successes, citing its role in boosting intra-regional commerce, fortifying regional supply networks, and generating substantial foreign exchange revenues and economic stimulation across member nations, including Trinidad and Tobago.
This corporate endorsement emerges against a backdrop of recent diplomatic discord. Antigua and Barbuda’s Prime Minister, Gaston Browne, publicly challenged Trinidad and Tobago’s Prime Minister, Kamla Persad-Bissessar, to substantiate her claims that Caricom nations had aligned themselves with Venezuela’s ‘Maduro narco government.’ Persad-Bissessar had accused the regional body of endorsing a ‘fake zone of peace narrative’ to facilitate the withdrawal of U.S. military presence, thereby consolidating Nicolás Maduro’s regime—a government she labeled dictatorial and responsible for widespread civilian oppression and threats against Guyana and Trinidad and Tobago.
In contrast, the CPSO’s statement, representing a coalition of at least seven national private sector bodies, underscored the immense value of both intra-Caricom trade and the community’s robust external trade partnerships, notably with the United States—Caricom’s primary external trading ally. The organization posited that these relationships are not mutually exclusive but are fundamentally complementary, enhancing economic resilience and diversification.
The CPSO concluded with a cautionary note, asserting that in an era of mounting global economic instability and isolationist tendencies, the confidence, stability, and cooperative dialogue fostered by Caricom and the CSME are indispensable for the collective sustainability and prosperity of the Caribbean region. The phrase ‘stronger together’ was emphasized as particularly pertinent, framing Caricom as the essential platform for unified resilience and strategic global integration.