A former top Caribbean diplomat is advocating that member-states of the Caribbean Community (Caricom) grouping should carve out a new and collective approach to their relations with the People's Republic of China (PRC).

Former Antigua and Barbuda High Commissioner to London, Sir Ronald Sanders, says the time has come for the grouping – which includes members with relations with the PRC and Taiwan – to collectively renegotiate firm ties with China, with or without Taiwan.

Sanders, who is now a consultant in London and publishes a weekly commentary on Caribbean affairs for the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC), was commenting in his latest column on a project in the Bahamas involving Chinese funding and labor arrangements for the popular tourism island chain's biggest construction project.

The Baha Mar project, projected to cost US$2.5 billion, is a very large tourist project that's expected to rival the Bahamas' biggest tourist plant, Atlantis.

Baha Mar sought, negotiated and got financing from the Ex-Im Bank of China.

Sanders agrees with concerns in the Bahamas about the large number of Chinese workers on the project resulting from the terms and conditions negotiated between the bank, the investor and the Bahamas government.

Sanders argued that "The present and future relations between Caribbean Community (CARICOM) countries and China" ought to come into their collective focus at this time.

He would like to see them address what he considers to be kinks in the individual relationships that member-countries have developed with China over the past decades that may need revisiting.

According to Saunders, "I have long argued that CARICOM countries should negotiate with China, at least a long-term framework treaty that covers aid, trade and investment.

"It should be a treaty along the lines of the Lomé and Cotonou Agreements that existed with the European Union."

The Guyana-born former Antigua Ambassador to Caricom continued, "As in all their bargaining with third countries, the CARICOM states would secure better terms if they negotiated with China as a collective, than if each of them tried to bargain alone."

He argued that if the Caricom grouping succeeded in settling a treaty with China, issues such as the role and quantity of local labor in commercial projects and in loan-funded projects could be settled up front, as would issues such as labor laws in the countries where such projects are undertaken.

"To negotiate such a Treaty with China, however," Sanders wrote, "CARICOM countries have to do one of two things.

First, he argued, "Those who now recognize Taiwan over China will have to drop that stance so that there is a united CARICOM recognition of China only."

Or secondly, he continued, "Those that recognize China should proceed to negotiate the Treaty with China, leaving the others to join when they can."

Sanders considered that, "There is a small window of opportunity left to negotiate a meaningful treaty with China."

He concluded that, "Individual China policies will get CARICOM countries nowhere in the long term" and proposed that "the time is right for all CARICOM countries to strengthen their relations with China on the basis of a structured and predictable treaty."