By Editor-July 6th, 2023.
The Caribbean Community (Caricom) will allow the free movement of people including access to health services and schooling for children within the single market by early 2024, Dominica’s Prime Minister Roosevelt Skerrit announced Wednesday in Port of Spain.
During his closing speech at the 45th summit in Trinidad and Tobago marking the 50th anniversary of the Caribbean community, Skerrit stressed that the measure will cover all 13 member countries.
(Note by Editor: According to the CARICOM Web site there are 15 full members of CARICOM and 5 Associate members, including Bermuda and the British Virgin islands. It is therefore assumed that the freedom of movement will not include the Associate members.)
He added that legal experts have been commissioned to prepare a report on this issue by March 30, 2024, to adopt a definitive position. The idea is that Caricom citizens “can see tangible benefits” of regional integration, Skerritt argued.
“We believe that this is a fundamental part of the architecture of integration and, at 50 years, we could not come out of Trinidad and Tobago and not talk about the core of the integration movement and that is the ability of people to move freely,” he added.
Barbados Prime Minister Mia Mottley underlined that the intention was to “fully allow the free movement of all categories of people in the Single Market by early next year.”
Mottley also pointed out that Caricom’s founding Treaty of Chaguaramas will be amended to guarantee access to primary and emergency health care services, as well as children’s, primary and secondary education, and thus improve the conditions of Caribbean citizens when they move around the region.
The Treaty of Chaguaramas was signed on July 4, 1973, thus giving birth to Caricom, which set the objectives of increasing trade relations with other countries, establishing international competitiveness, accelerating sustainable economic development, and consolidating educational and cultural ties.
Sources: Mercopress, Caricom.org
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