One of the most encouraging bits of news, potentially stimulating to Caricom trade and regional integration at a people level, is the intended establishment of a shipping service amongst Barbados, Guyana and Trinidad and Tobago.
It goes almost without saying that such a service connecting the member states by that which surrounds them and washes the shore of the continental Caribbean is a sine qua non – an absolute essential.
Our First Peoples with maritime skills traversed the Hemisphere from north and south in dug-out canoes, stopping and staying where it was convenient and rewarding to them. They effectively established a civilisation in this part of the world millennia ago.
The stories of the success of the two Federal boats for trading and pleasure, the MVs Maple and Palm, gifts from the Canadian government to coincide with the West Indian Federation (1958-1962) are legendary. Under the label of WISCO, the West Indian Shipping Corporation succeeded the federal vessels and was a boost to trade.
Through private enterprise, the windjammers of yesterday, now propelled by engines, have been carrying agricultural items amongst the OECS countries and T&T for decades and they continue to exist and without subsidies.
The bulk cargo vessels traverse the great oceans of the world and are necessary for generating and sustaining trade and life amongst countries and peoples of the world.
The timing for the re-establishment of sea connectivity within the West Indies is more than propitious, as food and other forms of life-sustaining cargoes on international shipping lanes have become unreliable.
In such circumstances, transporting regionally grown and produced food to cope with the perils of our times is an absolute necessity. So too is the service required if the region is to move quickly and effectively from the status of raw material producers for the Metropole.
In addition to the transport of food and to bolster industrial production, and perhaps most importantly, a well-organised, managed and profitable sea transport system can be the basis for bringing the people of the region together; the non-availability of which serves as an obstruction to integration.
A well-organised sea transport service can also give serious competition to the regional airline industry, which is unreliable, unprofitable and seemingly unfixable.
With product shortages existing in a world of conflict, breakdowns and food chain disruptions, sea transport within the region can, in the first instance, advance agricultural production and manufacturing in keeping with the varying capacities of member states.
A regional shipping transport system can also better link financial, economic, technical and manpower skills all needed for a fully functional common market.
The service is required even more as international conflicts continue, pose dangers to shipping lanes and contribute to the much-talked about supply chain breakdowns.
To counter the shipping line failures of the past, the easy and effective technological communications services to allow for greater and more efficient communications and planning are everywhere available.
The weaknesses of the past must be researched and solutions found to achieve success.
We should all take Guyana President Mohammed Irfaan Ali seriously when he says: “We have to get this going and then we have to work on expanding.”