Jamaica will not withdraw from CARICOM – Foreign Affairs Minister Nicholson

Jamaica government has reiterated its commitment to the regional integration movement – the Caribbean Community (CARICOM), and dismissed calls for the island-nation to quit the 15-member grouping.

Foreign Affairs Minister, Arnold Nicholson in a statement in the Upper House on Wednesday addressed comments from former prime minister Andrew Holness and opposition Jamaica Labor Party (JLP) legislator Dr. Christopher Tufton that the country could benefit from a “temporary pull out of CARICOM”.

While Nicholson acknowledged that Jamaica may not be benefiting from the regional community in the way it should, he said a withdrawal would affect benefits under the CARICOM Single Market and Economy (CSME) that allows for the free movement of goods, skills, services and labor across the region.

“In the context of a withdrawal from the CSME Jamaica would in effect be preventing its nationals and companies from utilizing the provisions under the CSME for free movement of skilled persons, capital, services and right of establishment.

“This would mean that those Jamaican nationals who have successfully moved to other CARICOM countries under the skills regime, would be required to amend their status in those countries,” he said.

Jamaica’s Michael Manley was among the four regional leaders that signed the original treaty of Chaguaramas establishing CARICOM in 1973. -(CMC)