Relaciones internacionales.indb - HOMINES

ALINE FRAMBES-BUXEDA
be restricted, economic development and social justice because or in spite
of integration and NAFTA, will probable be much lower than a decade
ago, 46 for at least half of the people in Mexico, Canada and United States.
These are some of the problems which accompany a “subordinate integration”
project such as NAFTA.
How will the Caribbean survive economic stagnation and deterioration
We can expect this crisis to increase because of the regional recession,
the debt crisis, the new Mexican-USA-Canada “Free Trade Zone” and the
“Enterprise for the Americas Initiative,” directed mostly toward South
America. The European Economic Community consolidation of its common
market in 1992-1993, and its interest in Eastern Europe, will also have
some negative effects on agricultural export in the Caribbean: for example,
the Lomé Banana Agreement and preferences ended and changed in January
of 1993. 47
All countries in the Caribbean shall be affected by economic stagnation
due to transformations in the global economy, although not all in the
same degree. Survival alternatives may also vary among Caribbean nations.
Colonial and associated territories of the U.S. and European countries receive
social welfare and unemployment compensation; this is the case for
the Dutch, French, British territories and U.S. Virgin Islands and Puerto
Rico. The rest of the Caribbean will be in a more difficult situation.
As various analysts have observed: “Mexico will out-compete the Caribbean
not only for unskilled assembly jobs, but also for high-tech skilled
jobs,” 48 the Caribbean will probably have to look inward and South towards
the rest of Latin America in order to define and elaborate an authentic
regional economic development project. In the Caribbean we must now define
what are our own development interests and possibilities; this historic
situation will probably force a sharper Caribbean-Latin American identity
as a result of necessary inward economic relationships in the region.
Several development strategies are possible and can be seen as real
alternatives. Tourism is a natural industry where the Caribbean has great
natural advantages. The tourism industry must remain efficient and competitive.
The Caribbean must seriously develop high quality culture-related
industries that are closely associated to tourism: sophisticated arts and
crafts; Caribbean produced fashions, canned fish goods, records, music
festivals, culture seminars, museums, Caribbean and Latin American Study
46
Cuevas, Agustín, “América Latina ante el fin de la historia,” (inedited), Mexico,
1990, pp. 11-15.
47
“Los productores del Caribe temen ante la competencia latinoamericana,” El
Universal, Caracas, Jan. 2, 1991, pp. 2-12.
48
Winston H. Griffith, “Free Trade and the Caribbean,” Hemisphere, Vol. 3, No.
3, Florida, Summer, 1991, pp. 6-7.
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