Caricom misses boat on free movement

IT WAS supposed to be Caricom’s gift to its people. At last year’s historic 45th Conference of Heads of Government, hosted in this country, leaders announced plans to introduce full freedom of movement for regional citizens. The measure was the centrepiece initiative of the bloc’s golden-jubilee celebrations.

“This is a fundamental part of the integration architecture, and at 50, we could not leave TT and not speak about the core of the regional integration movement,” said Roosevelt Skerrit, Dominica’s Prime Minister, who was the Caricom chairman. “We hope to see that it is implemented by March 30, 2024.”

The promise, possibly involving treaty amendments and national-level legislation, was always ambitious, especially with the risk of domestic politics sinking it. But as the deadline approached, leaders assured us it would be met.

“We are on target,” declared Mia Mottley, Barbados Prime Minister, a few weeks ago.

“This month of March, all attorneys general are required to put their country in a position for the Parliament to act,” our own PM disclosed.

Dr Rowley added there was a fervent desire to get the job done and described, in stark terms, what is at stake, economically and symbolically: “This is about whether we will survive as a Caricom nation.”

March has come and gone. Our Parliament is adjourned; the PM is on vacation. No official update was given as the month came to an end.

This is an embarrassing turn of events, particularly for Ms Mottley, who is charged with economic integration matters in the Caricom quasi-cabinet.

The failure to deliver, at least for the moment, on its own promise is possibly a sign that Caricom has been blindsided by events which have occurred since last July.

The bloc is this month due to continue its role as interlocutor in the border conflict between Venezuela and Guyana, which erupted at the end of 2023. It has been attempting to play a role in the Haitian crisis.

Both matters came to a head this week, with Nicolás Maduro pursuing domestic legal moves that would purportedly authorise him to annex Essequibo, in the face of December’s Argyle Accord; and the fires continuing to burn in Port-au-Prince, where violence reached “unprecedented levels,” according to the UN.

If free movement remains unrealised, more trouble could nonetheless soon be coming home for each island.

Meteorologists this week warned the upcoming hurricane season, which runs from June-November, may be the worst on record, with as many as two dozen named storms.

It would be a shame if, because of all of this, leaders are ultimately unable, after half a century, to use the small window of opportunity they have to act.