Editorial | Early CARICOM summit

If that is indeed their intent, Antigua and Barbuda should abandon any plan to promote a boycott – whether domestically or region-wide – of imports from Trinidad and Tobago (TT).

For while such a move might provide visceral satisfaction to those citizens of Antigua and Barbuda and Dominica who may feel hurt by recent statements about their countries and the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) by the Trinidad and Tobago prime minister, Kamla Persad-Bissessar, the boycott would only worsen the fractures in the regional integration movement, to which the Antiguan leader, Gaston Browne, has declared himself committed to.

A better, and more practical move at this time – if it hasn’t already been canvassed by CARICOM’s current chairman, Jamaica’s Andrew Holness or the incoming chair, St Kitts and Nevis’ Terrance Drew – would be for Mr Browne to propose the convening, at the earliest possible time, the next intercessional summit of CARICOM leaders.

On the current schedule, this meeting would probably be held towards the end of February. But given the crisis faced by CARICOM, it should be brought forward. And should be an in-person, rather than virtual, summit, placing the heads of government, Persad-Bissessar among them, hopefully, in the same room, eyeballing each other as they speak frankly about the issues.

Tensions within CARICOM have simmered since Ms Persad-Bissessar’s United National Congress (UNC) party returned to office and she signalled renewed discomfort with the community. The boiled over when President Donald Trump sent a US armada to the southern Caribbean Sea, ostensibly to confront drug smugglers, but in fact to place pressure on Venezuela’s president Nicolás Maduro, who the Americans won fraudulent elections.

CHEERED ON

When the US military blew up boats with alleged drug smugglers Ms Persad-Bissessar cheered on the Americans “to kill them all violently”.

Later, at the United Nations, she also rejected CARICOM’s restatement of its ideal of the Caribbean as “a zone of peace” rather than becoming a potential theatre of war, and welcomed the US military presence in the Caribbean. She has also allowed the US military to set a sophisticated radar system in Tobago, presumably to be used as part of operations against Venezuela.

Last week, after the US placed visa restrictions on Antigua and Barbuda over their citizenship by investment programmes, Ms Persad-Bissessar said that this was because the leaders of those countries had “badmouthed” the United States and told her own citizens to “behave yourselves”.

She also accused CARICOM, or some of its members, of backing a dictator in Venezuela and said that the community was “not a reliable partner at this time”, whose fissures might lead to its implosion.

Ironically, 2025 was perhaps among CARICOM’s most productive years in decades in advancing the regional integration movement and its transitioning into a genuine single market and economy. The community utilised its new dual-track implementation regime, allowing a certain number of members to proceed with projects for which there is agreement, but others are not yet ready to implement. That allowed Barbados, Belize, Dominica and St Vincent and the Grenadines to move ahead with the full free movement of each other’s citizens, with the right to live and work, between the territories.

That was part of the context against which Antigua and Barbuda’s Gaston Browne questioned Ms Persad-Bissessar’s characterisation of CARICOM as an unreliable partner and dysfunctional organisation, although his specific observation was Trinidad and Tobago’s economic gain from the community.

LARGEST TRADING PARTNER

Indeed, Mr Browne noted that in 2024 Trinidad and Tobago, which leveraged its energy resources to build its industrial base, exported US$1.1 billion to CARICOM markets, making the region Port of Spain’s largest trading partner after the United States.

“That trade has not been balanced. TT recorded the largest merchandise trade surplus within CARICOM, and it remains the only member state to have maintained a net positive trade balance with the community consistently since the inception of CARICOM in 1973,” he said. Indeed, the latest available data from CARICOM showed Trinidad and Tobago imported approximately US$149 million from the community in 2023.

Mr Browne highlighted that CARICOM’s maintenance of a common external tariff (CET) against non-members facilitated Trinidad and Tobago’s exports to the region.

Against this backdrop, reports from Antigua have quoted unnamed officials in Mr Browne’s government calling for “residents and businesses to consider a boycott of Trinidad and Tobago goods” over Ms Persad-Bissessar “disrespectful rhetoric”.

Similar sentiments have been raised in the past, including in Jamaica, over perceptions that the Trinidadians used non-trade barriers to keep out regional goods, or, especially during Ms Persad-Bissessar’s stint in government, of violating its obligation to the free movement of CARICOM citizens.

Such an action would be counter-productive, serving only to deepen the fissures and throw CARICOM in further turmoil.

CARICOM is a community of sovereign countries, with the right to pursue their own domestic and foreign policies. But as small, weak nations their best prospect of being heard in the current din of global turmoil is speaking and acting together. Or, at least not with hostility to each other.

The last time CARICOM faced divisions of this depth was during America’s 1983 invasion of Grenada. There was never consensus but leaders spoke frankly about the event. The community survived.

CARICOM has a template.