Editorial | CARICOM’s free movement

It obviously doesn’t have the same weight as the labour mobility pact between Barbados, Belize, Dominica and St Vincent and the Grenadines.

However, this week’s agreement between Barbados and Guyana that will their citizens to travel to either country with official identification cards (without the need for passports) is a positive development for both countries and the wider Caribbean Community (CARICOM), which also puts back on the table the issue of the full free movement of CARICOM’s citizens within the community.  

It also reminds of Jamaica’s snail’s pace movement in this matter and raises the question whether the Holness administration remains committed to the idea of full free movement. It has been silent on the matter for a long time. 

The Barbados-Guyana arrangement, which comes into effect in July, is important in several respects.  Not least of these is its importance as a political statement of friendship between the two countries at a fraught time for CARICOM, as well as what might have deteriorated into a grousy diplomatic relationship between Bridgetown and Georgetown.

Indeed, CARICOM has been at odds over Trinidad and Tobago’s unalloyed support of US President Donald Trump’s assertion of America's power in the Caribbean, including the US’ January’s assault on Venezuela and the capture and rendition of its president, Nicolás Maduro. Port of Spain has also quarreled with its CARICOM partners over the appointment of the community’s secretary general, Carla Barnett, for a new term, at a meeting from which Port of Spain says its representative was disinvited.

These broader regional tensions might have been exacerbated by Venezuela’s acting president, Delcy Rodríguez, wearing a brooch, during visits to Grenada and Barbados last month, that depicted a map of Venezuela that included the Essequibo region, the mineral-rich western two-thirds of Guyana that Venezuela claims.  That territorial dispute is before the World Court.

FAUX PAS

While CARICOM consistently backs Guyana’s territorial integrity, Ms Rodriguez’s sporting of the pin in CARICOM capitals was politically provocative, and a faux pas by the leaders of Grenada and Barbados of having entertained her without any public reference to their stance on the territorial issue. Rightly, Guyana’s president, Irfaan Ali, formally complained to the community.

Against this backdrop, the agreement on the ID travel is politically significant, suggesting that, at least at a bilateral level, CARICOM’s members can pursue important interests even when there are other sources of tensions. Indeed, the Barbados-Guyana travel agreement was announced only days before a statement by CARICOM foreign ministers that criticised the US economic embargo and oil blockade of Cuba, from which Guyana (dependent on the US’ security umbrella should Guyana seek to take Essequibo by force) and Trinidad and Tobago opted out.

The point is that the bilateral moves have the potential for morphing into community-wide actions, fissures notwithstanding.

While the Barbados-Guyana agreement won’t fundamentally advance CARICOM’s commitment to become a single market and economy, which presupposed the free movement of labour and capital, it has practical value beyond the political optics. It should lessen the friction, and cost, of travel between the two countries. Moreover, removing the need for passports, with the deeper legal implications of these documents, removes, or lowers, a psychological barrier implicit in passports -  and gives rise to an assumption of a deeper friendship.

UNWILLING TO COMMIT

Given Barbados’ critical place in the quadrangular agreement with Belize, Dominica and St Vincent, it is assumed that it was Georgetown – despite its oil-infused economic boom – which remains unwilling to commit to a deeper arrangement. 

Most CARICOM members allow community citizens with prescribed skills to work in their territories, but first obtain a specified regional skills certificate from their governments.

Last October, when the full free movement quartet – using an amendment to the CARICOM treaty that allows a critical mass of members to proceed on an agreed action while others catch up-   launched their agreement, Jamaica restated its commitment to the idea of labour moving freely in the community. But it gave no timeframe for following suit.

“We continue to put the necessary legislative, administrative, health, and security measures in place so that, when Jamaica moves to implement full free movement, it will be done in a manner that is orderly, effective, and sustainable,” Prime Minister Holness said at the time.   

Similar commitments had been given before, including by the foreign minister, Kamina Johnson Smith. However, there is no clear sign that the specific legal mechanisms have been worked on, including Bills taken to Parliament. 

At the same time, Prime Minister Holness has often complained about a shortage of skills in Jamaica, raising the possibility of importing labour to close critical gaps. Given CARICOM’s single economy aspiration, the region, via free movement, would seem to be the logical first stop.

Even at that, any fear that Jamaica would be overwhelmed by emigration for its CARICOM partners, if that is a concern, is likely to be misplaced. The evidence is of Jamaicans travelling in relatively large numbers to other CARICOM countries, rather than the reverse. Jamaica, though, might still get some needed skills from the region.