Messrs Golding, Manning and Jagdeo may still be polishing up ideas, or have presented to the community a full menu of strategies for jointly tackling the recession. But in so far as the public is aware, the leaders emerged from last Monday's summit without a single proposal.
"A group of heads (of government)," Mr Jagdeo told reporters, "will go collectively to meet with the heads of the multilateral financial institutions to argue that middle-income countries, with the peculiar vulnerability that we have in this region, must be eligible for multilateral debt relief."
The CARICOM delegation will also press for reflows to the region for debt already paid.
This, if it is all that there is, is not precisely earth-shattering stuff - at least, not to have taken so long to arrive at, and to have engaged so much brainpower.
Indeed, the community's response to the global crisis, which has delivered a walloping to regional economies, is symptomatic of what is wrong with the CARICOM grouping and has caused so many people to question what ought to be the unassailable logic of conglomeration.
It has been almost two years since the global economy began to unravel, and nearly one year since its intensification, with the collapse of Wall Street banks. Since then, there have been huddles among leaders - G-20 and G8 summit and several global initiatives - to respond to the meltdown. CARICOM, on the other hand, has been in a crawl, which is not to suggest that the community has not been exercised by the crisis.
Crafting a response
In fact, in May, Compton Bourne, the president of the Caribbean Development Bank, was asked to head a task force to craft a response. And Caribbean leaders have since then been through a special caucus and at least one full summit on the crisis.
Unfortunately, the specifics of the recommendations of the Bourne Task Force, or for that matter, the findings of any other group, have not been made public. So, even as Jamaica and several other CARICOM member states line up to go, or have been, to the International Monetary Fund for support, there appears to be a lack of urgency, certainly a lack of clarity, on how best the region can influence global events in its favour.
Take the case of approaching the multilateral financial institutions - which hold 22 per cent of Jamaica's US$6.27 billion in foreign debt - for rescheduling. That, if it can be achieved, may not be a bad idea. But given the historic attitude of these institutions to the matter, it is likely to be a difficult ask.
The region, we believe, could, however, make a credible case for a special facility for small economies of their type. An opportunity to forcefully advance such a case was missed at the Summit of the Americas for lack of preparation. A similar failure to prepare seems to be looming for the planned CARICOM summit with President Obama.
Our advice to the leaders who are to talk to the multilaterals is to be clear on what is saleable and possible before they talk.
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