Headlines:
| CARICOM Heads to make firm decisions at annual summit |
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| Wednesday, 01 July 2009 | |
 CARICOM Heads of Government are about to hold their
annual summit in the Guyanese capital Georgetown
have a list of issues they will have to make firm decisions on.The list includes immigration, accusations of trade barriers, extra regional alliances and a proposed Trinidad and Tobago/OECS economic and political union. "If they fail to fail these questions by a spirit of compromise then we are in a dilemma, the movement cannot move forward," said Caribbean journalist Ricky Singh. "There is this constant, recurring problem of governments making declarations about their commitment to set goals but at the same time they continue to stress the issue of sovereignty," he said. In the meantime, Barbados Prime Minister, David Thompson is confident that considerable progress will be made towards resolving the thorny issue of free movement and migration within the Caribbean region. Prime Minister Thompson noted that the issue of free movement will be raised at the meeting of CARICOM Heads of Government which is set to begin on Thursday and it is likely to be discussed at bilateral engagements between himself and Guyana's President Bharrat Jagdeo. He pointed out however that the CARICOM Charter sees unrestricted movement and migration within the region as a goal to be achieved in the region through a phased approach and not something achieved in an instant. "I therefore believe that until the growth in our economies is such that they can sustain the full freedom of movement, we should move towards a formal system of managed migration through guest worker programmes similar to the ones we currently enjoy with Canada and the United States," Mr. Thompson said. |