1. Project Objectives
The goal is to accelerate Haiti’s readiness for participation in the Caricom Single Market and Economy as a means of enabling Haiti to fully re- engage in the process of regional integration in the Caribbean Community, after a three year disruption caused by the violent political events in the country in 2004. This is to be achieved thought the accomplishment of the following objectives
- the establishment and operation of a Caricom Representation Office in Haiti to manage and implement the project;
- expanding the knowledge base of parliamentarians, public and private sector officials, about Haiti’s responsibilities under the Revised Treaty of Chaguaramas and strengthening designated ministries responsible for specific aspects of the integration process;
- the early establishment of the legislative, regulatory and administrative arrangements that will allow Haiti to participate in the components of the single market – i.e. free movement of goods, services, capital, and people
- initiating public education programmes that increase citizens’ awareness;
- Implementing technical cooperation activities that build capacities and enhance capabilities and engendering people-to-people contact between the people of Haiti and those of the other member states of the Community so as to increase opportunities for building individual and institutional partnerships.
2. Project Activities
These five core Objectives of the Project are to be attained through the implementation of nine components. These are:
- Operation of the Caricom Representation Office – Maintain an adequately staffed and resourced office; and undertake the day-to- day management of the implementation of the Haiti CSME Project.
- Knowledge and Capacity Transfer- Ensure that the Haitian Government institutions and personnel understand the goals and operation of the Caribbean Community.
- Trade in Goods – Ensure full and active participation in the CSME’s regime on Trade in Goods.
- Public Education – Ensure that the Haitian public is informed about and understands the goals of the Community and that the public in the other Member States of the Community are informed of developments in Haiti and gain a greater appreciation of Haiti’s structures and institutions.
- Movement of Skilled Nationals – Enable the Government of Haiti and other Member States to draft protocols and agreements to enable Haiti to participate in CARICOM’s regime on the Movement of Skilled Nationals.
- Trade in Services – Enable the Government of Haiti to participate in the CARICOM’s regime on Trade in Services.
- Right of Establishment – Enable the Government of Haiti to adopt the necessary legislative and administrative arrangements that will allow for the operation of CARICOM’s regime on the Right of Establishment for companies, partnerships, etc., in the Community.
- Movement of Capital –Enable the Government of Haiti to participate in Caricom’s regime on Free Movement of Capital
- Functional Cooperation – To assist Haiti to participate in functional cooperation activities of CARICOM and so strengthen linkages among the people of the Community.
OBJECTIVE 1: Review of the CROH’s Activities 2008- 2011 »
In order to implement the nine components of the Haiti CSME Project, the CROH prepared Annual Work Plans detailing the activities that were to be undertaken under each Objective. The following review describes the activities that were implemented and the progress that was made towards achieving the objectives of the Project during the years 2008 – 2011.
OBJECTIVE 2: Knowledge and Capacity Transfer »
Ensure that the Haitian Government institutions and personnel understand the goals and operation of the Caribbean Community
The focus of this objective has been to prepare the Haitian public service to manage Haiti’s involvement in Caricom with particular emphasis on the management of free trade and a number of Haitian public service officers have received training on Caricom trade issues. However the main activity has been the initiative to assist Haiti establish a national standards authority. The standards authority will be required when Haiti commences participation in free trade in goods in the CSME as well as for its obligations under the WTO technical barriers to trade agreement.
The initiative has been spearheaded by CROSQ, the Caricom Regional Standards Organization which during the period 2008-2009, conducted three missions to Haiti. These missions resulted in Haiti becoming a member of CROSQ, Haitians officials receiving training in standards and the creation of a plan of action for Haiti to have established a national standards body by early 2010. The first part of CROSQ’s third mission which was held in early December 2009, was to have been completed in early 2010. This did not however take place because of the Jan 12th 2010 earthquake.
CROH’s collaboration with CROSQ in the establishment of a Standards Authority for Haiti made further progress with the organization of two seminars on the establishment of a Haitian Standards Bureau from June 29th -1st July 2011. Thirty four-participants from the private and public sectors attended. The seminars culminated in the formation of the first two subcommittees of the Haitian Standards Authority. It is expected that this will lead to the creation of other sub committees and the finalization of the legislation for the creation of the Authority.
Building the capacity of the Haitian Public service has also been conducted through attachments by Haitian Public service officials to Caricom headquarters in Georgetown and to government departments of member states and as well as at a regional training programme on diplomacy. Three Haitian Foreign Service Officials were attached to the Foreign and Community relations Division of the Caricom Secretariat between 2008- 2010. In mid 2009, officials from various government departments received training in the management of Caricom trade at the Customs and Trade departments in Jamaica and Trinidad and Tobago. Following the Jan 12th earthquake, CROH funded the participation of Haitian officials at COTED meetings and other regional seminars, including attendance by a Haitian Ministry of Foreign Affairs documentalist at a regional seminar in May 2011 on preserving archives in disaster situations.
OBJECTIVE 3: Trade in Goods »
Ensure full and active participation in the CSME’s regime on Trade in Goods
This objective has been the main thrust of the CROH work programme as Haiti’s participation in the liberalized trade in goods regime of the CSME has been regarded as the basic step in its adherence to the CSME. The Administrative and legal arrangements necessary for commencing free trade in goods were outlined by a technical trade mission from the Caricom Secretariat in Georgetown in May 2008 led by Norris Breedy. From then, the CROH worked with the BCS on the recommendations of the report and all the technical work necessary to bring the Haitian national tariff in line with the Caricom Common External Tariff (CET) was completed.
The next step that had to be taken for Haiti to commence full free trade in goods within the CSME was therefore for the Haitian Parliament to pass legislation adopting the Caricom External tariff as Haiti’s national tariff. In mid 2009, the Government of Haiti announced that it would be ready to participate fully in free trade in goods within the CSME by 1st January 2010; and in fact through a revised Custom Act adopted by the Haitian Parliament in late 2009, 20-30% of the Caricom CET was incorporated into the Haitian national tariff. However the Government then commissioned a study on the implications of Haiti’s full adoption of the CET, and then soon afterwards, the Government of Prime Minister Michelle Pierre Louis, which would have piloted the CET legislation through Parliament, was removed from office, effectively halting Haiti’s progress towards the full adoption of the CET.
The work of advancing the realization of the Trade in Gods regime continued in 2010 despite the earthquake of 12th January 2010 and the change in Government at the end of 2009. At the initiative of the CROH, Caricom in 2010 agreed to grant Haiti one way duty free access to the Caricom market. The agreement by the Council for Trade and Development (COTED) for Haiti to be allowed non reciprocal duty free access to Caricom markets for 46 Haitian products became effective 1 January 2011, thus allowing Haiti to commence participation in the free trade in goods regime of the CSME under a special arrangement. In preparation for this, the CROH organized the final in the series of seminars it had been conducting with Haitian officials on the management of Caricom trade. In February 2011 two seminars on the management of Caricom trade, with specific reference to the Special arrangement for Haiti, were held for Private and Public Sector officials. A total of 70 persons participated in these seminars.
The first consignment of goods from Haiti shipped under the special arrangement arrived in St. George’s, Grenada during the second week of April. The items included wall decorations, candle and napkin holders, and wind chimes. This was a milestone for the Haiti CSME project and Ambassador Irwin LaRocque, then CARICOM Assistant Secretary-General for Trade and Economic Development, hailed the development as “a positive one by Haiti to become a part of CARICOM’s trading arrangements”. He also lauded the Community’s non-reciprocal access to sister Member State Haiti as a sign of their commitment to Haiti’s reconstruction through private sector engagement.
The CROH, in collaboration with the BCS, had organized training programmes to prepare Haitians officials for the management of Caricom trade. A workshop for public sector officials was held in Port au Prince in March 2009; ten of these officials were later sent on attachments to trade and customs Departments in Trinidad and Tobago and Jamaica in mid 2009 for further training. Sensitization seminars were also held for CSME stakeholders – private sector representatives, traditional businesses persons, those in regional Chambers of Commerce, youth entrepreneurs, and persons involved in arts and craft and culture.
In order to complement the decision by Caricom to grant non reciprocal duty free access to the Caricom market for selected products from Haiti, CROH undertook two activities to strengthen private sector linkages between Haiti and other Caricom member states.
A four member mission from the Caribbean Association of Industry and Commerce was brought to Haiti in February 2011 in order to initiate discussions with Haitian private and public sector bodies on the development of linkages between the private sectors of Haiti and other Caricom member states. A number of follow up activities were agreed upon including the participation of the Haitian private sector in a Construction Forum in Trinidad and Tobago, organized by CAIC with special reference to the post earthquake situation in Haiti. The CROH was instrumental in facilitating the identification of the participants from Haiti and in organizing the logistical arrangements for their trip to Trinidad and Tobago.
In June 2011, the CROH organized a Haitian mission to Trinidad and Tobago for a trade exhibition. This was the first time that a Haitian craft and art group was exhibiting in Trinidad and Tobago, paving the way for the development of trade in these items between the two countries. CROH’s objective of fostering private sector linkages between Haiti and other Caricom member states was therefore gradually being realized.
OBJECTIVE 4: Public Education »
Ensure that the Haitian public is informed about and understands the goals of the Community and that the public in the other Member States of the Community are informed of developments in Haiti and gain a greater appreciation of Haiti’s structures and institutions.The initial engagements with Haitian Public and Private sector officials had confirmed that the Haitian people generally lacked information about Caricom and the other member states; and it was known that Haiti itself has suffered from a negative image in other Caribbean countries. It was therefore vital to bridge that information deficit about Caricom and Haiti as a condition for Haiti’s s successful integration into the CSME. It is for the reason that considerable attention has been paid to the Public Education objective.
Given that the Director of CROH had a media background, it was decided that CROH would be directly responsible for executing the Public Education programme. It was also decided to convene a communications advisory group which would determine a communications strategy for the CROH, as the first step in concretizing the Public Education Objective. The strategy Document- Bonding with Haiti – outlined a programme of multimedia and non media activities.
The CROH then proceeded to implement the strategy, providing information on Caricom, the CSME and Haiti, through seminars, addresses, radio and television public service messages and a newspaper project. Journalists throughout Haiti were the early targets and approximately 200 journalists received information about Caricom and the CSME in a series of workshops held in different parts of the country. There was a consultation on Caricom and the CSME with Haitian youth leaders from across the country and Caricom forums with the Chambers of Commerce of Cap Haitian and Cayes.
The mass media campaign segment of the public education programme was successfully launched with a high profile event in July 2009 featuring the Prime Minister of Haiti, Michelle Duvivier Pierre Louis. This was followed by the release of television and radio public service announcements on Caricom in Haiti and on Haiti in other member states. These were scripted by the Director of CROH. The Haiti PSA’s were first broadcast during the live television coverage of an international cricket tournament that included a team from one of the Caricom member states and therefore received widespread exposure throughout the region.
Following the earthquake of 12th January 2010, the CROH towards the end of the year brought the regional public a sense of the situation in Haiti, gripped as it was by then by the cholera epidemic and the general election fever. The CROH funded and organized a mission to Haiti by a three member Caribbean Media Corporation media team in order to report on the situation in the country for the region. The Teams reports were carried over CMC’s regional TV station as well as on radio stations in the region.
In 2011, CROH provided financial and logistical support in Haiti for a group of five female journalists from four Caricom member states who were inspired by the CMC series to come to Haiti for further coverage of the country for audiences in the region. The group financed their travel to Haiti and their programme in Haiti from 17- 24th March was organized by the CROH. Their multi media reports, on Haiti, including a Facebook Page, were disseminated to the regional public over a four week period.
But the major breakthrough in the effort to inform the public of other member states about developments in Haiti came in mid 2011 with the production and broadcast a of weekly fifteen minute television programme called HAITI NOW which presented news and features on Haiti. This was the first time that Caribbean audiences were receiving news reports about Haiti from Haitian journalists on a regular basis; more than that, the programme consciously featured the more positive aspects of developments in Haiti. Haiti NOW was broadcast to the region via Carib Vision, the regional TV channel, in collaboration with the Caribbean Media Corporation, CMC, for a token fee; it was also carried by some affiliates of the CMC. From responses to date, it has definitely begun to change traditional perspectives of Haiti in the region. The most notable response came from a television station in the French Department of Martinique which has requested subscription to the programme.
In Haiti itself, from 2008, television was also utilized to promote information from the region. A Haitian television station, specializing in cultural programmes, was engaged to go to another Caricom member state – St. Lucia – to produce and a television documentary on the Kreyol language and cultural links between Haiti and St Lucia. This has been one of the most successful media activities, for the TV station – Canal Onze- has been consistently broadcasting the documentary from 2008, drawing widespread public appreciation and amazement at the similarities between Haitian and St. Lucian culture.
The Radio and TV announcements that were produced in 2009 were complimented by billboards placed strategically around the country featuring a message on the meaning of Caricom for Haiti. In the last quarter of 2009, the print dimension was added to the electronic media outreach with the publication in the main newspaper of Haiti, Le Nouvelliste- of a weekly review of developments in Caricom –“Caricom: Revue de la Semaine.”
In 2011, CROH resumed the programme of sending Haitian Journalists to report on activities in other member states and to present the rest of the region to the Haitian public. Two Haitian Journalists- radio and print- were enabled to participate in and cover a CAIC/CDB sponsored Caribbean Construction Form in Trinidad and Tobago 21-23 March, with a special focus on Haiti. The Forum which involved 36 participants was aimed at developing relationships between construction entities in Haiti and other Caricom member states. The journalists reported on the Forum for their Haitian organizations so that the Haitian public received a Haitian perspective on the developing private sector links between Haiti and other Caricom members.
In September, Six Journalists from two major Television stations and the main newspaper in Haiti undertook a tour to Barbados and Guyana from the 4- 11th September 2011. All participants, as well Caricom officials in Barbados and Guyana, described the tour as being extremely successful. The two TV Stations each produced a documentary on the field mission, presenting information on the Caricom Secretariat, the Caricom offices in Barbados, and other regional institutions and aspects of life in these countries. There was also a series of newspaper articles on the tour.
CROH’s public education programme has definitely contributed to raising the profile of Caricom in Haiti and has begun to make the people of other Caricom member states realize that there are positive aspects to Haiti of which they had been unaware. However the information void on Caricom and Haiti is so large that the public education programme will have to be intensified if it is to successfully contribute to bringing the peoples of Haiti and other member states together
OBJECTIVE 5: Movement of Skilled Nationals »
It was thought that it was not yet opportune to take Action on Objective 5 because of the increasing political sensitivity in the region on that subject which has been one of the more difficult elements of the CSME to put into practice. In the case of Haiti currently all Caricom member states impose visa restrictions on Haitian nationals. It was therefore decided to await political direction on the timing of commencement of work on that issue. However given the strong feeling from Haiti against the visa restrictions on Haitian nationals by other Caricom member states, this issue will have to be resolved very soon because it will partly determine the extent of Haiti’s willingness to advance on the other elements of the CSME.
OBJECTIVE 6: Trade in Services »
Enable the Government of Haiti to participate in the CARICOM’s regime on Trade in Services
The Government of Haiti had decided that following its commencement of the free trade in goods regime, it would then wish to participate in the free movement of services element of the CSME. In 2009 a search was launched in Haiti for a legal firm to carry out a study of Haitian laws and practices restricting the provision of services in Haiti by Community nationals, but this was unsuccessful. However an EU consultant has since prepared a report on the Services Sector in Haiti, and that Report is to be utilized to prepare for Haiti’s acceding to the Trade in Services regime.
OBJECTIVE 7,8: Right of Establishment & Movement of Capital »
With regard to Objectives 7 and 8, the Government of Haiti had indicated that it was not yet in a position to begin consideration of these elements. However with the 2010 -2011 Work programme, it was decided to commission the studies on these two aspects of the CSME with reference to Haiti in order to prepare for consultations with the Government of Haiti on those issues. These two elements of the CSME have been regarded as the next stages of the CSME which Haiti should implement since they have been the easiest to achieve in the other member states.
OBJECTIVE 9: Functional Cooperation »
To assist Haiti to participate in functional cooperation activities of CARICOM and so strengthen linkages among the people of the Community.
The major activity under this component was an experts meeting in Haiti in December 2009 on Culture, Trade and the CSME which aimed at initiating dialogue among policymakers and professionals in culture with a view to developing cultural industries in Caricom with particular emphasis on Haiti. It was also meant to contribute to the functional cooperation goal of strengthening linkages between the peoples of the region. In the field of disaster management a number of Haitian officials visited disaster management organizations in Barbados and Jamaica to become acquainted with the systems utilized in the region.
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