Prime Minister Rowley’s visit to Jamaica

COMING soon after the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) Heads of Government Meeting in Georgetown (July 4-6) it may have passed under the radar or escaped attention of a four-day visit (July 17-21) to Jamaica by Trinidad and Tobago (T&T) Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley. This visit which was hosted by Jamaica Prime Minister Andrew Holness sought to address a range of issues relating to the bilateral relationship, including trade and immigration, between the two countries. In July 2013 then Leader of the Opposition Holness had publicly called for Jamaica to suspend its membership of CARICOM until growing trade-related disputes could be satisfactorily resolved more urgently with Trinidad and Tobago. Since being elected prime minister in February 2016, Holness has repeatedly made it known that Jamaica has no intention of leaving CARICOM. It is also instructive that so soon in leading the country’s new government, he moved to have the burning issues addressed and resolved.
The meeting is deserving of attention, given that it was not only held by two new leaders in government who have made it clear their commitment to address festering concerns that existed between the countries and their peoples, but also for its implications in deepening the integration movement. The two countries within recent times have had estranged relations, primarily stemming from immigration differences. T&T had been turning back, deporting and detaining Jamaicans on claims of violations of its immigration laws. In speaking specifically to the immigration matter and approach to addressing same with Rowley, Holness said, “Both leaders must find ways to ensure that ‘this natural exchange and interconnectedness between our countries is hassle-free and facilitated by our respective regulatory bureaucracies.”
Before the engagement of the two Heads, residents of Jamaica had reacted to the treatment of their fellow citizens by the T&T authorities, calling on their government to block the entry of products made in the twin-island republic. Citizens were called on not to purchase these goods and shopkeepers to take them off the shelves. The potential effect of this were it to be carried through and/or sustained would not only be a breach of Jamaica’s obligations under CARICOM, but also would have been likely to have negative consequences on the producing and purchasing countries, as well as on trade and integration.
The Caribbean Single Market and Economy (CSME) is hinged on free movement of goods and services in the region. However, in the area of movement of people, there continues to be different views on how this should happen and even conflicts on how it ought to be implemented and citizens treated. Whereas each country, though a member of CARICOM, has its sovereign laws including immigration, which should be respected by every country, such has been observed more in the breach.
For instance in 2008 during the Bharrat Jagdeo government, the David Thompson administration of Barbados was seeking to have that country’s immigration law respected. During this period there were citizens from other countries, who, not understanding how the free movement of skills is applied, felt that they could have entered any country and commenced work without the required Skills Certificate issued by the originating country and Work Permit from the host country.
Many Guyanese used the much-talked-about Free Movement of Skills and migrated to Barbados without honouring their legal obligations under the programme. In doing so, they were in breach of the immigration laws of Barbados. Conflicts between the two countries and their peoples ensued with trading of words and allegations, including accusation made that Barbados’s effort to enforce its law was based on racism. This position was articulated from some unlikely quarters and on the assumption that most of those to be affected by enforcement would have been East Indians.
Unfortunately, the governments of Guyana and Barbados never sought to have a meeting similar to that of Rowley and Holness. And with Thompson dying in office and a new prime minister replacing him, there exists no definitive agreement between the two countries on this matter. The survival of CARICOM, like organisations of similar nature, will be reliant on member states having signed on to agreements, treaties and ratified conventions, charters and declarations being committed to honour them, with due regard for each country’s sovereignty. In that Jamaica and Trinidad and Tobago under new leadership has sought to do so, and mindful of the tensions between their peoples, these gentlemen as 21st century leaders have set in train a new form of action and engagement that can become the model, if not best practice, for other member states to emulate. At the level of the peoples, such bodes well for harmonising relations based on mutual respect.

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