Minister: Public to be consulted on CSME free movement

FOREIGN and Caricom Affairs Minister Sean Sobers says the government is considering consulting with Trinidad and Tobago nationals before implementing the proposed upgrade of free movement under the Caricom Single Market and Economy (CSME).

Speaking at the post-cabinet media briefing at the Red House, Port of Spain, on July 10, Sobers said if people wanted to move throughout the Caribbean currently, they had to get a CSME skills certificate from the Ministry of Foreign of Caricom Affairs.

“This particular evolution of the CSME now will see people moving throughout the Caribbean region without having to obtain that skill certificate. Prior to the (49th Caricom Heads of Government) meeting in Jamaica, this was an issue being dealt with a prime ministerial level and TT has had extensive discussions internally with various Cabinet ministries so everyone is on the pathway for readiness as it pertains to eventual implementation of this framework.”

He said the government thought it was important for the public to understand and fully appreciate what that would mean for TT after it was implemented.

“Some people are considering whether to have public consultations on the issue because it was not done before. As much as the Prime Minister would have indicated through us and during her own discussion that we are fully engaged with Caricom... and we want to reassure our Caribbean partners about it, we also need to balance that with our obligations to nationals here and how our own nationals would feel about something like this.

“That is where we are at and that is the position adopted by other countries in the region. They are reviewing it and will signal Caricom when they are ready to implement a total free and full movement of people.”

He said there had been submissions from the Homeland Security Ministry regarding immigration, the Health Ministry regarding the health sector, and the Education Ministry, which had been reviewed and responded to by his ministry.

“As we are a new administration, we are reviewing the consultations they would have had internally to ensure we are absolutely ready when we give this nod to Caricom that this rollout of this new evolution of the CSME could take place.

“We are at an advanced stage as it regards the full and fair movement of people, but we just want to pause a bit on certain aspects of it until Cabinet has a proper understanding of what this would look like. We have not imposed a time line. I have certain things I need to present to Cabinet which I will do in short order and then Cabinet will make a decision on how to move forward.”

Among the other topics discussed at the meeting were the situation in Haiti, citizen security, regional transport, the regional telecommunication strategy, regional security architecture, the Caricom Development Fund, external trade negotiations and the reparations committee. He said bilateral discussions were held with Singapore, Jamaica, Austria and Portugal.

“These discussions enabled us to exchange a lot of information to the possibilities of signing memoranda of understanding with these countries which we feel would be helpful for TT as we move forward in this dynamic world of uncertainty.

“We believe, having reported back to Cabinet, that participation at the 49th Caricom Heads of Government meeting was extremely pivotal to us and I think coming out of that engagement, we should see a lot of inertia (sic) taking place with respect to our relationship with several countries within the region as well as those countries we would have met through their ambassadors outside the region.”

He said a phone call on July 10 advanced TT’s health relationship with Austria and the Health Minister would be able to give more information on this at a later date.