With the meltdown of the global economy would now be an impromptu time to form political union with Canada?
With the global economy heading down the tubes, would now be the right time for Barbados to consider eking out a deal to form a political union with the other provinces of Canada and join the Canadian Federation???
This was proposed before. In 1884 by the Barbados Agricultural Society. And again surrounding the West Indies Federation in the 1950s where several Barbadian diplomats considered a deal involving Barbados joining Canada.
Currently Barbados and Canada are pretty firmly economically attached at the hip. Barbados annually hovers around 3rd-5th in terms of being Canada's highest target of Direct Foreign Investment (FDI) in the world. The economy of Barbados and Canada tend to lend well to one another as well. They are both tied to the "services" industry. Tourism, call centers, offshore sector, outsourcing etc.)
A very mutually beneficial deal could actually be reached. Currently CARICOM nations are ranting about the EPA deal with the EU and how it threatens to undermine the entire Caribbean Single Market and Economy. Canada is also planning deeper negotiations with the EU on a deeper trade deal. So, if Canada and the Caribbean teamed up on a trans-Atlantic trade deal, this side of the Atlantic would have a far larger bargaining chip. (CARICOM makes up 14 of the 35 countries in the Americas.) So there's a very real chance that Canada and the Caribbean might more easily be able to accord or secure a better deal between both regions and Europe. Canadian banks already control Barbados' banking sector, and in forming a tie-up with Canada, Barbados would no longer see money actually leaving Barbados' economy and going to Canada. (Instead it would be one big shared economic space.) Canada already offers a lot of jobs to Caribbean nationals similar to how the Caribbean Single Market and Economy is supposed to work- so literally Canada already has a programme in place with the Caribbean region that the Caribbean can't even seem to firmly get off the ground fully.
Additionally, beyond the EU the Caribbean is looking at having to do something with the United States in the future too concerning a Free Trade deal. The Caribbean Basin Initiative is going to run out at some time. However, if you look at the benefits of the deal that Canada already has with the US. The Federal Government of Canada is already a member of NAFTA. Should Barbados enter a political deal with Canada, Barbados could make use the Canadian Federal Government's provisions within NAFTA for access to the U.S. market. However, with Barbados not actually signing NAFTA itself the Caribbean economy would be in a slightly more sheltered position than trying to take-on the U.S. economy alone and Canada taking it on alone. The Caribbean would help to diminish some of Canada's overall trade imbalance with the U.S.A.
The Caribbean diplomats also keep saying they want NAFTA parity with the USA. However that is unlikely based on the economic conditions of the USA. They may not want to expand anything more than what is already on the table for a while. Again, the NAFTA provisions that the Canadian Government (already) signed with the USA could come into use again for Barbados. The appealing thing about the Canadian Government is it is a Confederation/Federation. It is a series of provincial governments that all have a stake in the shared central government. Each Province has their own flag, can partly set their own immigration policy concerning outsiders of the Federation. And provinces in Canada can have their own cultural identity protected (Quebec is a good example.) So Barbados is not likely to just suddenly be overrun and be Canadian overnight. Barbados can keep it's same flag make it the Provincial flag. The Prime Minister would become a Provincial Premier (which mind you could still go on trade missions to other countries around the world) However Barbados would become part of a G-8 government with the rest of the Canadian provinces. Tourism would be bolstered too since Barbados would be the first tropical province in Canada. Health Care in Barbados and Canada are also similar, they both have government supported health care. This could work out to both side's betterment too. Currently Canadians find it a annoyance that when they travel to warmer countries during the winter, their Canadian health care doesn't carry-over with them and they have to buy *another* health care policy in that foreign destination. Every Canadian that comes to Barbados isn't going to need tons of medical attention, and we should be able to handle a few more visits at the QEH or polyclinics. Additionally, in Barbados being aligned with Canada any surgeries that can't be carried out in Barbados would mean that Barbadians would be able to goto elsewhere in Canada to get it done. And the Barbadian health care could cover the hospital bill too... It is a win-win deal for both regions.
Beyond that, in Barbados aligning the Canadian he
Actually it would be more like CARICOM plus. CARICOM is a framework that will never be effective. It doesn't have the population to ever have the upper hand. To give you an idea of this. It goes without saying that China and India each have a Billion people. Mexico has about 107 million people. The United States has 300 million.. Brazil has 188 million. France has 64-65 million. The UK has about 60 million people. Germany has 82 million. Venezuela has about 29 million...
If you add up the entire population of CARICOM (even with Haiti's 8 million included) the entire population of CARICOM is 15 million people. That in effect is why CARICOM wont be able to get fair deals. CARICOM needs to expand its economic space in order for it to be able to craft a better deals globally. Canada has a population of about 33 million which effectively isn't much per se with CARICOM's it would be about 45 million. Which still would put it behind many nations. But it is a start.
Ohh yes and one more figure. The population of Japan is roughly 127-128 million people. The fact of the matter is CARICOM continues to lose ground to other states which are moving ahead to form trade deals with the United States. In the future these are all going to be places that CARICOM is going to have to compete with on a daily basis. Already some in Mexico, Canada and the United States are talking about taking their economic integration to the next level- and talking about the North American Union (NAU) which is an EU style proposal for North America. In such a situation CARICOM would continue to lose yet more ground economically to Mexico. and even the Dominican Republic which has already signed trade deals with the North American nations. Theres more deals than this where Barbados was going to give up soverignty. In 1995 there was a proposed deal to form a union between Barbados, Guyana and T&T.
Also now, T&T is talking about a union with the OECS states.
To AJ. Guyana and Suriname have already signed to join South America's economic/political union known as Union of South American Nations (USAN). Belize has done the same with Central America. Ofcourse the Bahamas knows their future lies with North America. CARICOM nations all seem to see their own need for keeping Haitians from being in the Freedom of Movement arena. Outside of that the idea of switching CARICOM nations to the US dollar seems expensive. Barbados looked at switching to the US dollar years ago and ruled it out for being way- to pricey.
The Barbados-Canada political union idea was most recently outlined by Barbadian Author Trevor A. Carmichael in the book "Passport to the Heart Reflections on Canada Caribbean relations" ISBN: 976-637-028-1