With no collective agreement yet reached by CARICOM on the free movement of nationals, respective member states are rolling out their own policy initiatives.
“I want to call it the coalition of the willing. There are still one and two countries that have some technical issues they have to iron out, but for those of us who don’t have those issues, we have committed to the free movement,” CARICOM Chairman and Prime Minister of Grenada Dickon Mitchell told Stabroek News on Friday when asked for an update.
The CARICOM Chairman did “not want to say” which countries are still looking at issues but noted that his country has rolled out free movement. “In Grenada we sought to address this,” he stated.
CARICOM had set a March 31, 2024, deadline for the free movement of nationals, with a draft document signed, but there were other delays and the deadline passed. CARICOM has never officially said what caused the delays and or if a new timeframe was set.
However, Mitchell expressed the hope that with Grenada leading by example, other countries which have no current issues with free movement, will implement their respective policies to achieve the free movement objective until the agreement is met. “My expectation is that those of us who have no issues with free movement will be able to implement and those who need that carve out will take that carve out,” he said, adding, “But I would say we are treading in the right direction as less and less of us need a carve out.”
In July of this year, Guyana’s Minister of Foreign Affairs Hugh Todd asserted that free movement of CARICOM nationals is a treaty obligation and Guyana will adhere to that.
“It is a treaty obligation. It is to be able to upgrade the standard of life for the entire community. The treaty is designed to bring economic and social advances to the entire community. We don’t treat it as if one country will benefit and one doesn’t. At the end of the day, the sum of all would be better than thinking of one, such as, what if more persons go to Guyana, or Trinidad and Tobago, or Barbados,” Todd had told Stabroek News.
“Not everyone will move. People move for various reasons. All of this will have to be bolstered by the transportation policy we have… It is a step in the right direction in achieving the single economy we are trying to achieve,” he added.
At the closing press conference of the 45th CARICOM Heads of Government meeting, held in Trinidad and Tobago in February 2023, Dominican Prime Minister and then Chair-man of CARICOM Roosevelt Skerrit, had announced that the community was aiming for free movement by all from March and that all country leaders 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.
He had acknowledged that the decision could not be implemented immediately as modalities in the Revised Treaty of Chaguaramas would have to be dealt with by a legal team.
Sources have told Stabroek News that the discussion on the issue “emerged from the CSME [Caricom Single Market and Economy] discussion which is always on the agenda. Some Heads felt that the 50th anniversary was a good time to make the move which was always on the cards, but which they had been approaching incrementally.”
Todd had noted that the issue triggered “ongoing discussions and the Heads felt it was necessary to advance our implementation rate. Although we have done well, we still have an implementation deficit. It looks good that it is the 50th as well. I think the stars are just aligning.”
This newspaper understands that some heads of government had raised concerns and wanted to consult with their legal teams at home. “Some concerns were raised in the discussions,” a source said, adding that this was why it was decided to “… delay the implementation to March next [this] year. This is to give the countries’ legal people time to see what the implications for respective countries are.”
Meanwhile, Barbadian Prime Minister Mia Mottley had confirmed at the press conference that the decision was made to move from the freedom of movement of skills and service to free movement of people.
“It’s all people, there’s no services anymore… This now gives full expression to what Carib-bean people have wanted since we had control of our destinies,” Mottley had said.
She explained the amendments must be able to guarantee a minimum set of rights for citizens and not open up countries to possible liabilities. Once these rights are established and agreed upon, she stated, they will form part of the amendments to the treaty.
“Out of an abundance of caution and being sure-footed, there are some aspects in the Treaty that require amendment and therefore we are giving ourselves until the 30th of March, 2024, to make the amendments,” she informed.
According to Mottley, they will soon look at accessing funds from the CARICOM Development Fund to finance mechanisms that will upgrade facilities in each country. This, she noted, is to ensure that citizens are able to benefit from an equal and accessible level of service from the different countries in CARICOM.
CARICOM’s Chairman last week opined that a part of the problem also hinged on transportation, reasoning that, “I think part of it is the transportation and logistics because the more infrastructure that is there the more it is easier to move.”