Issues in a New Dynamic (30/05/08)

The emergence of Venezuelan-promoted ALBA and Petrocaribe and their growing relations with several Caricom countries is a significant recent development in regional affairs; with Petrocaribe now the largest source of concessional lending to Caribbean oil-importing countries. This paper examines the trade, financial and social cooperation programmes of ALBA and concludes that participation in ALBA is not incompatible with membership of Caricom. It also addresses broader strategic issues including diversification of Caricom’s international economic relations; opportunities for mutually advantageous forms of South-South cooperation; and the scope  for a coordinated trade policy by Caricom…

Click here for full paper (PDF file)

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To download a copy of the report, please go to: www.wdm.org.uk/rawdeal

Third Distinguished Lecture in a series in honour of Sir Arthur Lewis, the English-speaking Caribbean’s first Nobel Laureate. Vaughan Lewis is Professor at the UWI Institute of International Relations, St. Augustine, Trinidad.

Arthur Lewis can be said to have been a child of the integration movement…His very early writings all sought to deal with the West Indies (the British West Indies) as a whole, and he devoted, as is well known, a substantial portion of his life to writing about, and working in connection with, the possibilities for integration, or closer union, of these islands…

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Click here for PowerPoint Presentation