Compliance of C.S.M.E. is main agenda for Barbadian PM

In 2006, CARICOM countries signed on to the implementation of the Caribbean Single Market and Economy for the free movement of goods, services, capital and skilled labour in the region. This has been top of the agenda for CARICOM and while some countries have not moved along in implementation at the pace of others, visiting Barbados Prime Minister David Thompson, who has lead responsibility for the C.S.M.E. says the Heads of Government are seeking to make compliance of the C.S.M.E. more effective.

David Thompson, Prime Minister, Barbados
“The administrative and legal framework to carry out the decisions of the heads is not there. Sometimes the resources are not there. So you make take a position in relation to freedom of movement. Countries may say yes we have implemented it, but then when you look on the ground and see how it is being implemented it may not be what the heads have envisaged as the desired outcome. What we are doing now as part of the exercise to carry the C.S.M.E. to its next stage is an audit of every single CARICOM territory. It has been concluded in four territories so far and the heads have agreed that certainly by the end of April the entire audit exercise will be completed in all territories and that by July the information on the audit would be available so we’d see not only a relation to commitments given, but a relation to the quality of implementation. So if we need to provide assistance to get those decisions fully and effectively implemented, it can be done. What I think has happened very often is that very lofty goals have been spoken about and identified and political decisions have been made, but those haven’t translated into practical action. We are often criticized in Barbados for the position that we’ve taken in relation to immigration matters, but some of the biggest critics have not even put in place the basic infrastructure to implement some of those decisions. And therefore, we understand what some of the challenges are in relation to the implementation phase and I think that is where we need to focus some of our attention so that we are all brought up to speed on what we have agreed already before we start embarking upon another round of lofty language, which doesn’t translate into benefits to the people.”