April 07, 2005
CSME Unit
Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade

• Improved ability to recruit skilled workers from across the region. Provisions under Chapter 3 of the Revised Treaty will allow skilled personnel and their families as well as business enterprises to take advantage of job opportunities within the CSME.

• Enhanced access to specialized training and technology transfer which will serve to expand the knowledge base and capacity building skills in various sectors and locations.

• Increased opportunities for intra-regional cooperation in human and social development.

• Harmonised quality standards across the Region. These standards will apply not only in the area of goods but also in relation to services. A Regional Accreditation Body is to be established and there is also the Caribbean Accreditation Authority for Education in Medical and other Health Professions, which was inaugurated in July 2004. The latter currently applies to six (6) member states including Jamaica .

• Enhanced opportunities for cross-cultural interaction. The CSME will promote a greater sense of regional identity and individuals/groups/communities will benefit from greater exposure to cultural norms and practices from across the region.
• Increased consumer choice in relation to goods and services.

• Greater scope for job creation and poverty eradication. This must be complemented by improved access to training and skills development at the national level.

• Enhanced frame work for small business development e.g. niche marketing, formation of partnerships and joint ventures

• Prospect for increased economies of scale particularly from natural resource rich locations.

• Increased opportunities for firm to access a wider market for raising capital at competitive rates, thus allowing the productive sectors to be more competitive at the Regional and international levels.

• Easier access to a larger market - about 14 million (including Haiti 's 8.5 million).

• Enhanced ability for firms to outsource production components

• Improved market access for service providers, particularly in the professional sectors such as consultancy services, nurses, engineers, architects and teachers. Service providers will also enjoy equal treatment in terms of market access.

• Enhanced export markets and investment opportunities in the Region. This will reduce Jamaica 's dependence on the export of primary agricultural products

• Opportunity to pool collective resources to concentrate on selected areas of economic activity which can bring tangible benefits to us in Jamaica and the Region as a whole. For example: shipping, tourism, music and entertainment, including management services associated with those activities

• Enhanced opportunities to penetrate third country markets.

• Provision of a platform from which the Region can speak with a common voice in the crucial trade negotiations in which the countries of the Region are involved i.e. the World Trade Organization (WTO), the Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA) and the European Union. The need for unity in these various negotiating theatres is absolutely crucial if the concerns of the Region are to be addressed by the wider international community.