INTRODUCTION
One of the world’s most popular beverage, which is coffee, originated in the Ethiopian province of Kaffa.1 It is said, when consumed in moderate proportions and without a lot of sugar and cream it can harbor numerous health benefits, for example it is a legal performance boost, it may help fight depression, lower your risk of type II diabetes, neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer’s and Parkinson disease, ward off skin cancer and even help you lose weight.2
Jamaica’s blue mountain coffee is known globally and sadly it is not being exported to its Caribbean neighbours. One would think that with the establishment of CARICOM and by extension the CSME, and Jamaica being a member, would capitalize on this and capture the regional market with this fine product, instead the region is bombarded with other brands of coffee.
BACKGROUND
The Caribbean Community or CARICOM as it is more popularly known today consists of fifteen Caricom member states and five Caricom Associate Members,3 the last to be formally admitted as a member state is Haiti and this was at the Twenty-Third Heads of Government Meeting, Georgetown, Guyana, on 2nd July 2002.4
Long before the Caribbean Community came into existence, there was the West Indian Federation. This Federation was established by the British Caribbean Federation Act of 1956, with the aim of establishing a political union among its members. The members comprised the ten territories of Antigua and Barbuda, Barbados, Dominica, Grenada, Jamaica, Montserrat, the then St.Kitts-Nevis-Anguilla, Saint Lucia, St. Vincent and Trinidad and Tobago. Sadly the Federation was disbanded in 1962, four years after inception due to some members attaining independence and wanting to withdraw (namely Trinidad and Tobago) because they now had the power to control their own domestic and external affairs.5
In July 1965 it was agreed by some Premiers of State to establish a Free Trade Area in the Caribbean, in...