ST. GEORGE’S, Grenada, CMC -Caribbean Community (CARICOM) leaders ended their summit here on Tuesday night, unable to sign off on the arrangements to facilitate CARICOM nationals’ free and whole movement.
The leaders initially hoped to implement the process by the end of March, as expected following their summit in Guyana earlier this year.
The regional leaders were due to meet in mid-March for the anticipated sign-off on the arrangements. Still, outstanding matters must be resolved before full free movement can be operationalized.
Speaking to reporters at the news conference marking the end of their three-day summit here, host Prime Minister Dickon Mitchell, also the CARICOM chairman, said, “What I can say is that we are not there yet.
“We continue to engage with some of these users who require us to get there. But we certainly will continue doing the necessary work to realize the ultimate vision,” Mitchell said.
Asked by reporters to indicate the impediments, Mitchell responded, “I prefer not to give you what the specific impediments are other than to say that we will continue to work and engage on some of the outstanding issues.”
At the end of the February summit in Guyana, Barbados Prime Minister Mia Mottley, who has lead responsibility for the CARICOM Single Market and Economy (CSME), told reporters, “We are on target” regarding the free movement of CARICOM nationals.
The CSME allows for the free movement of goods, skills, labor, and services across the region. Under the existing free movement of skills regime, persons seeking to work in member countries must obtain a CARICOM Skills Certificate.
But apart from university graduates, artists, musicians, sportspeople, media workers, nurses, teachers, associate degree graduates, domestic workers, and artisans, all other categories of workers would need a work permit for the country they are entering.
Mottley had told reporters that the community is on track to fulfill the mandate regional leaders gave at their historic 50th-anniversary summit in Trinidad and Tobago in July last year for the free and whole movement of CARICOM nationals from March 31, 2024.
She said then that two outstanding matters must be resolved before the entire free movement can be operationalized. These two policy issues were referred to heads for settlement by the intergovernmental task force on free movement.
However, in this negotiation process, Antigua and Barbuda had already signaled that they wished to maintain their use of the current skills regime, which allowed them to focus on addressing labor force demand in the local market.
“The policy is pragmatic and realistic to avoid dislocation of the indigenous population, protecting jobs, and avoiding exacerbating our economic/fiscal challenge,” said Antigua and Barbuda’s Ambassador to CARICOM, Dr Clarence Henry.
The Bahamas and Bermuda have also indicated that they will not participate in the free movement of people across the region.
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