CARICOM Single Market and Economy Assessment Of The Region's Support Needs

The CARICOM Single Market and Economy (CSME) is the flagship of the regional integration movement, aimed at creating a single economic space which will support competitive production within CARICOM for both intra-regional and extra-re~onal markets. It is considered critical to the future growth and development of the Region, and intended to ensure that CARJCOM effectively surmounts the challenges and difficulties that confront Member States and keep pace with the changing global economic climate.

Despite substantial social and economic progress, CARICOM States continue to be confronted by a number of imposing challenges, including the high prevalence and rising incidence of HIV/AIDS; increasing poverty, varying among countries in severity and rural/urban distribution;high rates of unemployed youth; drug abuse, violence and crime, linked to the narcotic drug trade, and their growing threat to security; the loss of trade preferences for the traditional products of bananas, rice, sugar and rum, resulting in loss of market security; the negative effect
on offshore financial services, an area in which Member States enjoyed a comparative advantage, by OECD actions to counter money-laundering; and the impact of changes in information and communication technology, in giving rise to new economic activities based on knowledge and information at the expense of traditional natural resources-based industries.