The planned retreat later this week for CARICOM Heads of Government initiated by its Chairman and Dominican Prime Minister Roosevelt Skerrit has been cancelled.
First reported by the Caribbean Media Corporation (CMC), the cancellation has been confirmed by Secretariat sources. Sources explained that multiple factors influenced the decision, including that many of the issues, notably that of free movement of nationals, that were to be discussed at the retreat are still being addressed by respective countries.
At the closing press conference of the 45th CARICOM Heads of Government meeting, held last month in Trinidad and Tobago, Dominican Prime Minister and Chairman of CARICOM, Skerrit had announced that the community was aiming for free movement by all from next March and that all Heads had resolved to remove impediments by then.
“We have taken a decision to have the free movement of all categories of people to live and work… We believe that this is a fundamental part of the integration architecture and at 50, we could not leave Trinidad and Tobago and not speak about the core of the integration movement and that is people’s ability to move freely within the Caribbean Community,” Skerrit was quoted as saying. He noted that the topic was the highlight of the three-day event, in CARICOM’s 50th year.
Skerrit had also announced that he had invited regional leaders to the retreat, planned for August 18th and 19th. He had informed that the two-day retreat would be used to review a number of reports, including regional governance and strengthening functional cooperation, ahead of their next mid-term summit in Guyana.
CMC said that when he had been asked to be more specific about the issues to be discussed at the Dominica retreat, Skerrit said President Irfaan Ali had highlighted the need for the region to address the issue of trade barriers, the global issue of governance within the community, and taking stock of the world’s geopolitics “and how do we position ourselves.
“COP 28 is approaching, and we need to have a clearly defined position,” he said, adding that the regional grouping must “sing from the same hymn sheet” on issues such as climate finance and the need for reform or transformation of the international financial system.
President Ali is slated to be the next Chairman of the community and he has promised that his tenure would be a “spectacular” one.
