BASSETERRE, ST. KITTS, JULY 8TH 2010 (CUOPM Press Release) - St. Kitts and Nevis Prime Minister Hon. Dr. Denzil Douglas on Wednesday warned Caribbean Community (CARICOM) countries that they cannot afford to abandon their Single Market and Economy (CSME), while contending that Community nationals must be free to move.
“So let us now stop, look at where we are, adjust the time lines and see if we can really achieve these goals because these goals need to be achieved if the Community is to work. We can’t abandon the Community ideals, we must have a single market and single market must have as its central operative the movement of people,” Dr. Douglas told a news conference at the annual summit of regional leaders in Montego Bay, Jamaica.
The St. Kitts and Nevis Prime Minister however acknowledged that regional leaders may have been too ambitious when they agreed to have the free movement of labour across CARICOM as part of the CSME that is due to come into effect by 2015.
“We have agreed that free movement is central to the success of the single market. The fact that we have not been able to achieve free movement ... we have come to the conclusion that we may have been too ambitious with regard to our time lines.
“We need therefore to stop and adjust those timelines so that we can practically achieve the single market which is critical to the success of this community we are creating,” he said, acknowledging that regional leaders would have to move “the goal post.”
The CSME allows for the free movement of goods, skills, labour and services across the region. But with respect to labour, the leaders have agreed on several categories of workers who would be allowed to move freely across the region. These include university graduates, media professionals, entertainers, sportspersons, domestic workers and health professionals.
Dr. Douglas said that the full implementation of free movement should have come into effect from this year but “we realise that is not happening.”
“We are saying that something is wrong and we have decided that we need to realistically put our heads together again, look at the reasons that are being given for not allowing people to move, a lot of them could be petty reasons, some could be serious and reasons of security as well.”
According to the CMC Report, Dr. Douglas said the timelines set “were unrealistic and I think the self appraisal is important and that is what has come through from this meeting” of CARICOM leaders here.
“We have been able to frankly look at ourselves and say, there are certain areas where we have failed. Our ideals were very praise worthy, they were noble but maybe we were a little too utopian and idealistic to get it to work.”
He said that the idea should not be to “abandon proceeding towards the single economy because the single market has not been working, it has not been achieved, the idea is a single economy is critically important,” he said, noting that it is even more vitally important for the smaller states of the 15-member grouping.
“So therefore you cannot abandon it therefore let us fix that which is preventing the single market from working,” he said.
Dr. Douglas said that the current legislation in the Caribbean countries allow for the immigration officers to use their discretion in deciding whether or not to allow a person into the country.
“That is why we are saying, for example, that the Regional Security System using the model of assessment that we have established in Barbados and Trinidad and Tobago is so critical because it has been able to flag potential security breaches.
“That even strengthens our view of having a common regionally financed security system because it helps also to answer some of the questions with regards to the restrictions of movement of people freely,” he told reporters.
Dr. Douglas said that despite the situation regarding the free movement and other problems within CARICOM, he is still of the view that “the state of health of the Caribbean Community is good.
“In every institution you would have as part of its own democratic institution governance structure period of reflection, periods of criticism, periods of appraisal, reassessment and new agendas to move forward.”
He said what is critical in the summit, which ends on Wednesday, is that “we are taking those decisions by ourselves.”
The Kittitian leader said that the leaders have received a report from the Council of Ministers, the second highest decision making body within the grouping, which reviewed all CARICOM institutions.
“It is important that you do wait until you fall ill to go to the doctor, you go to the doctor to prevent yourself from getting ill and that is why you must have checkups. That is why I say the health of the Community is excellent.”
Dr. Douglas said that there is a possibility that a committee comprising foreign ministers would be appointed to re-examine the governance structure of CARICOM given the discussions held during the summit here on the matter of implementation of decisions.
“What I think is happening is an examination of the institutions, how they are functioning, the fact that we have gotten fed up, we make decisions here and the decisions are not implemented. Something has to be wrong. Let us find out what is wrong.
“The Community Council says this thing is affecting us … we need to go forward, implementation is the issue, find some way of correcting this problem,” he said, adding “they are saying the time has come for us to examine that governance structure.”
He said that the two models that had been considered by regional leaders during the meeting here were the one utilised by the sub-regional Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States and the European Union.
