Door to Regional Integration: Pushing and Pulling Won’t Take Us in – Joey Issa

Ocho Rios businessman and civic activist Joe Issa, has said that jostling among CARICOM members will not open the door to regional integration and thus, a bigger trading and domestic space for all.

 

Issa, who was reacting to strides being made within the Organization of Eastern Caribbean States (OECS) to create a single domestic space, commended the islands on the initiative, suggesting that the move will redound to their benefit, even as the bickering continues within the wider CARICOM grouping.    

 

“This is a great stride towards full integration of the sub-regional grouping. This move will give them a bigger market for their exports and a wider domestic space to move about more freely and learn and appreciate each other more.

 

“Most importantly, the initiative gives greater recognition to the fact that they are one people with the same origin and culture,” says Issa, noting, “It’s a pity the same cannot be said of the bigger CARICOM grouping, whose members continue to push and shove each other.”

 

The article in which the move by the OCES was reported, said plans are being advanced to establish a single domestic space within the OECS and that top officials within the 9-member sub-grouping would be meeting at a symposium in Antigua and Barbuda (May 30 to June 2) to develop the framework to facilitate this arrangement, within the context of the OECS Economic Union.

“Once in place, it would mandate that persons travelling within the Economic Union Area (EUA) be treated as if they would already have been cleared for entry and satisfied all required border control formalities for entry into the area,” the article stated.

In addition, “visitors arriving from outside the space should satisfy all border control checks only at the first point of entry into the EUA and then be able to move freely within the area, without subsequent border control checks.”

 

The symposium would also discussed the systems that will be required for a harmonized border management, procedures and systems for full clearance at Immigration and Customs at the initial port of entry into the EUA.

 

Other matters down for discussion include information sharing and intelligence gathering among border agencies and requirements and implications for the application of a Common Visa Regime.

 

“Also scheduled for discussion are the mechanisms for distinguishing between the movement of personal effects and the movement of commercial goods for the purpose of applying VAT and excise taxes where necessary, and procedures for treatment of goods, including passengers’ baggage and excisable goods, and personal and household effects owned by individuals relocating to another member state,” it said.

 

The OECS Secretariat was reported as saying that key regional institutions would be invited to the symposium such as the CARICOM Secretariat, sub-agencies of CARICOM including CARICOM’s Implementation Agency for Crime and Security (IMPACS), the Joint Regional Communications Centre (JRCC), and the Regional Security System (RSS).

 

Among those invited to the meeting are commissioners of police, chief immigration officers, comptrollers of customs, air and sea port managers and other high-ranking officials within the sub-region.