On the first day of the business sessions of the 30th Heads of Government Conference of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) Friday, a special caucus was held that ran late into the evening, dealing with the free movement of people and goods across the Community. This information was provided by the current CARICOM Chairman and President of Guyana, Bharrat Jagdeo, at the end of the caucus at 23:00h.

The President explained that the first day was spent dealing with some very major issues including the global financial and economic crisis, the ICT (information communication technology) programme for the Caribbean and agriculture.

This was followed by the caucus which sought to address the immigration and trade issues that have threatened to derail the meeting and the integration process.

“These are, as you know, weighty and contentious issues and I am pleased to say that I feel that we have moved the issues forward,” he said. “We debated these very important issues in a spirit of cordiality and while each country had strong positions, I think that all were respectful of the need for us to move forward on these matters and to preserve the integrity of our regional movement.”

The President stated that the meeting did not fare as badly as many people thought. He noted that the doomsday scenario of the break-up of CARICOM will not happen because there are some very important considerations that have to be addressed.

Earlier, at the opening ceremony of the meeting on July 2, President Jagdeo had stated that it is of utmost importance that the Caribbean Community strengthens its relations, as it would be better suited to represent the region on the world stage.

He explained that all Caribbean countries would be unable to influence the global power structures, and would be subject to whatever decisions are made by the major global players, without the ability to influence those decisions.

On the free movement of people, the Head of State explained that some of the countries argued that they are facing economic hardships and outlined the difficulties that maintaining immigrants would place on them.

He further explained that they are asking for special consideration and while these issues cannot be ignored, the Community has to ensure that whatever actions are taken is consistent with the revised treaty of Chaguaramas.

“Our goals under this Treaty were to ensure, over a period of time, free movement of all of our people across the region to live and work wherever they please. Those are the kinds of considerations that are coming through and therefore, we might not have a position that satisfies the needs of every single country but a collective position that will bring to bear all these considerations and hopefully move us forward,” President Jagdeo stated.

The Head of State, however, declined to report further on the contents of the discussion, noting that would have done at a press conference held yesterday afternoon. (GINA)