Stewart, Taimoon --- "Regional Integration in the Caribbean: The Role of Competition Policy" [2012] ELECD 893; in Drexl, Josef; Bakhoum, Mor; Fox, M. Eleanor; Gal, S. Michal; Gerber, J. David (eds), "Competition Policy and Regional Integration in Developing Countries" (Edward Elgar Publishing, 2012)

Book Title: Competition Policy and Regional Integration in Developing Countries

Editor(s): Drexl, Josef; Bakhoum, Mor; Fox, M. Eleanor; Gal, S. Michal; Gerber, J. David

Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing

ISBN (hard cover): 9781781004302

Section: Chapter 8

Section Title: Regional Integration in the Caribbean: The Role of Competition Policy

Author(s): Stewart, Taimoon

Number of pages: 24

Extract:

8. Regional integration in the
Caribbean: the role of competition
policy
Taimoon Stewart

The reality is that an efficient Single Market and Economy is this Community's
best hope in relating to the international community and for its growth and
prosperity and for the improvement in the standard of living for its people.
(Edwin Carrington, Secretary General of CARICOM)1


1. INTRODUCTION
The perception of the Caribbean as a place where people have a relaxed way
of life, basking in the sun and enjoying sand and sea is partly true, but there
is an underbelly of tensions, poverty and disharmony that is a much more
potent reality for the majority of people living in the region. Indeed, it is a
very complex area, and one that has been shaped from the sixteenth century
by European expansion and imperialism. To focus mechanically on the
instruments of regional integration based purely on integration theory, and
on the regional competition policy, would leave blind spots in the analysis
that would result in a distorted picture and flawed conclusions.
This chapter provides an evaluation of the role of competition policy in
the integration process, and suggests that there is a very real danger that the
objectives of free flow of goods and services in the CARICOM Single
Market (CSM) could be compromised by anti-competitive conduct by large
firms in the region. In the process of this evaluation, the paper provides a
snapshot of the societies and economies in the CSM, the tensions involved
...