KINGSTON, Jamaica (Observer) – President of the Private Sector Organisation of Jamaica (PSOJ) William Mahfood has questioned the benefits of Jamaica being a member of the Caribbean Com-munity (Caricom).
“Caricom is a good thing but it’s not being enforced properly,” Mahfood said yesterday morning as he addressed editors and reporters at the Jamaica Observer’s Monday Exchange at the newspaper’s Beechwood Avenue headquarters.
“It should be freedom of movement of people, services, goods and money. Any person should be able to get up and apply for a job in another [Caricom] country, instead of being treated as second-class people,” he argued.
Noting that jobs are available in countries that are economically stronger, the PSOJ president said, “if we could have Jamaicans and other nationals going to fill these jobs, it would be a less burden on unemployment”.
He further suggested that, “if Caricom doesn’t operate that way, what we have is a one-way street”.
Trinidad, he added, has a huge advantage over other member states because of control on borders.
“The private sector in Trinidad feels [the] same way as we do. Not in favour of free trade on a single market,” Mahfood said.
“What we should look at is how we can come together for it to be what it was intended [to be].There is hardly any accomplishment of Caricom.
We fill out a single form, but what else has happened?” he added.
Meanwhile, the PSOJ president also took note of a premium on gas being paid by the Government to Trinidad as a fellow Caricom member state.
“Tell Government [to] stop paying Trinidad a premium on gas,” he demanded.”
