Caricom countries cannot be selective in aspects of the CSME

Caricom countries cannot be selective in aspects of the CSME – Jagdeo

Mar 21, 2009 News

President Bharrat Jagdeo

It is very worrying if regional countries start to ‘window shop’ with the Caricom Single Market and Economy (CSME), President Bharrat Jagdeo said on Thursday. Countries cannot be selective in aspects of the agreement that best suit their interest, he added.
Speaking with the local media at the Office of the President, the Head of State said that he is very reluctant to have the CSME truncated in ‘little bits’ because if that were to happen some countries that have already made deep commitments to free movement of goods and services, may want to review those commitments.
“If the capital exporting countries want free movements of capital because they stand to benefit from free movement of capital then they must also bear some of the negative consequences of free movement of people – because of this enterprise you cannot win everything.”
The entire purpose, he pointed out, is to have a single economy that will over time benefit everyone both regional enterprises and regional people.
From the inception, he explained, there were two schools of thoughts on the CSME.
One side felt that there was a need to review some of the provisions of the CSME with a view to phasing the implementation over a longer time period.
This was thought of because of the difficulties that some countries could face in absorbing extra labour flowing into their societies.
On the other hand, there was another group that felt that a commitment was made to the CSME and that countries cannot ‘pick and choose’ parts.
Guyana, President Jagdeo said, falls in the category where a commitment was made regarding the CSME as integrated whole.
“It’s an agreement that is made up of several parts and you cannot pick and choose the parts that you like and then want the other parts, which are critical to the functioning of the whole delay those because they present some difficulties to you.”
In December, the Caricom Secretariat reported that only a small number of persons have been denied entry into Caricom members of state under the free movement of skills provision in the CSME.
Head of the Caricom Secretariat, Dr. Edwin Carrington, said that free movement of skills is one of the areas of the integration process by which the progress of the integration process is judged.
Closely aligned to the free movement, Dr. Carrington said, is the issue of contingent rights.
This is the rights of spouses and dependents of those who move on the basis of their skills certificates within the context of the single market.
The Caricom Secretary General had also stated that the experiences of some, who have tried to move with their skills certificate, have led to the establishment of a working group, which have been set up to iron out practical and operational difficulties encounter by the holders of such certificates.
This occurs, he added, especially when countries operate under immigration law, which is headed and named ‘the immigration restriction act’ and not ‘the immigration facilitation act.’
Within the free movement provisions, members of states are still trying to identify the rights of contingents, which will be incorporated in a protocol, which will supplement the revised Treaty of Chaguaramas.
One of the concerns that countries have been complaining about is that they are not in favour to grant ‘rights’ to contingents but instead prefer to use terms such as ‘privileges’ or ‘facilities.’
This is an area that members of state will be discussing this year.
One of the constraints with respect to the free movement was the fact that there were a number of cases where persons were using fraudulent certificates.
These fraudulent documents not only relate to the supporting document but also to the skills certificate.