CARICOM grants deferral to 2 member countries on freedom of movement

Two Caribbean Community (CARICOM) countries have been granted a 5 year deferral on the freedom of movement of Caribbean nationals under the CARICOM Single Market and Economy (CSME) that allows for the free movement of goods, skills, labor and services across the 15-member grouping, Trinidad & Tobago Prime Minister Keith Rowley has said.

While he did not name the 2 regional countries, Rowley, speaking at a news conference on Sunday, reminded reporters that Port of Spain had last December hosted a special CARICOM summit on the CSME where “we got unanimous support for the acceleration towards a single market and economy. In that arrangement is the whole question of freedom of movement of individuals among the territories.”

Rowley told reporters that as a result, both territories “asked for a 5 year deferral as not to be bound legally to accept any and all who would come into their borders because the effect that would have.”

He said this situation had only arisen “because of the size. It is not the willingness to participate or the willingness to accept the CSME as the best arrangement for us. But this effect on the smallest is a practical situation and I dare say that the rest of the CARICOM saw and understood what was being said by our CARICOM neighbors in that situation and granted the deferral.”

In the communique issued following the summit in St. Kitts & Nevis, the regional leaders said regarding the CSME that they had “reviewed progress on decisions taken” at a previous summit and that “welcomed the fact that all countries have signed the Protocol on Contingent Rights.”

In addition, 8 countries have decided to apply the measures that would allow their nationals to benefit in those countries from the provisions of that agreement on contingent rights which allows for spouses and dependents of skilled workers who move to another country to access services such as education and health on the same basis as nationals.”

It said that these countries are Antigua & Barbuda, Barbados, Dominica, Grenada, Guyana, St. Kitts & Nevis, St. Lucia, St. Vincent & the Grenadines and Trinidad & Tobago. -(CMC)