The CARI­COM Sin­gle Mar­ket and Econ­o­my (CSME), was ap­proved in 1989, by the Con­fer­ence of Heads of Gov­ern­ment to cre­ate a sin­gle eco­nom­ic space where goods, ser­vices, cap­i­tal and skilled pro­fes­sion­als can move freely, where no one is left be­hind.

The Free Move­ment Regime is a foun­da­tion­al pil­lar of the CSME’s ar­chi­tec­ture, em­bed­ded in the 2001 Re­vised Treaty of Ch­aguara­mas. The Regime is a sys­tem of or­der­ly mi­gra­tion that al­lows skills to flow where need­ed, with a Skills Cer­tifi­cate and/or a Work Per­mit Ex­emp­tion. Since 2006, when Mem­ber States de­clared their readi­ness to par­tic­i­pate in the Sin­gle Mar­ket, ap­prox­i­mate­ly 3,500 TT na­tion­als have been is­sued with CSME Skills Cer­tifi­cates in pur­suit of lu­cra­tive ca­reers in sec­tors such as En­er­gy, Sport, Tourism, En­gi­neer­ing, Busi­ness Man­age­ment, Ac­count­ing and the Cre­ative In­dus­tries. Trinidad and To­ba­go has al­so grant­ed Work Per­mit Ex­emp­tions, ben­e­fit­ting from the in­vest­ment of ap­prox­i­mate­ly 400 en­tre­pre­neurs of Mem­ber States who have es­tab­lished busi­ness­es un­der the Right of Es­tab­lish­ment.

CSME: A ve­hi­cle for Re­cov­ery and Im­pact

Trinidad and To­ba­go as­sumed the Chair of CARI­COM from Jan­u­ary to June 2021 dur­ing which time the CSME was giv­en pri­or­i­ty by the Prime Min­is­ter as one of the main ve­hi­cles for Trinidad and To­ba­go’s post COVID-19 eco­nom­ic re­cov­ery.

As such, the Min­is­ter of For­eign and CARI­COM Af­fairs ap­proved a sev­en-phase Mod­ern­iza­tion Plan through a se­ries of in­sti­tu­tion­al and cus­tomer ser­vice strength­en­ing mea­sures. The first four phas­es en­tailed the dig­i­ti­za­tion and dig­i­tal­iza­tion of its ser­vices in line with the Na­tion­al Dig­i­tal­iza­tion Plan. The CSME Unit now of­fers to the pub­lic the abil­i­ty to book ap­point­ments on­line at https://ap­point­ments.gov.tt/, al­low­ing Tele-help ap­point­ments for con­sul­ta­tions and re­quest in­for­ma­tion 24/7 via its chat­bot fea­ture. Phas­es V and VI when com­plet­ed, will see a ful­ly mech­a­nised on­line ap­pli­ca­tion and pay­ment por­tal with an ap­pli­ca­tion track­ing sys­tem, sup­port­ed by a Pub­lic Aware­ness Cam­paign. The new fea­tures have al­ready re­sult­ed in an uptick of the Skills Cer­tifi­cate and the Right of Es­tab­lish­ment ap­pli­ca­tions.

“The col­lab­o­ra­tive ef­fort be­tween the Min­istry of For­eign and CARI­COM Af­fairs and the Min­istry of Dig­i­tal Trans­for­ma­tion has put us on a path of in­sti­tu­tion­al trans­for­ma­tion. To­geth­er, we have laid the foun­da­tion that will help us to change the course of Mod­ern Diplo­ma­cy.” Sen­a­tor Dr Amery Browne, Min­is­ter of For­eign and CARI­COM Af­fairs

“Mod­ern Diplo­ma­cy is chang­ing the way we work. The post-pan­dem­ic fu­ture scope must be dis­rup­tive in the pos­i­tive sense by lev­el­ling the play­ing field. The CSME Free Move­ment Regime ex­pands the op­por­tu­ni­ties avail­able to work­ing women and fe­male en­tre­pre­neurs through­out the re­gion. It is a tool for so­cial and eco­nom­ic em­pow­er­ment.” Joanne Brooks, Head of the CSME Unit, CARI­COM and Caribbean Af­fairs Di­vi­sion.

For more in­for­ma­tion, one can vis­it the CSME’s web­site https://for­eign.gov.tt/ser­vices/csme/.

Q&A ON THE CSME

Q. What is a Skills Cer­tifi­cate?

A. A Skills Cer­tifi­cate is a doc­u­ment/cer­tifi­cate is­sued by the Com­pe­tent Au­thor­i­ty in par­tic­i­pat­ing CARI­COM Mem­ber States (Min­istry of For­eign and CARI­COM Af­fairs in Trinidad and To­ba­go), which al­lows any qual­i­fied CARI­COM na­tion­al to move freely and work in any par­tic­i­pat­ing Mem­ber State with his/her fam­i­ly.

Q. Which are the par­tic­i­pat­ing CSME Mem­ber States?

A. The par­tic­i­pat­ing CSME Mem­ber States are:

An­tigua and Bar­bu­da;

Bar­ba­dos;

Be­lize;

Do­mini­ca;

Grena­da;

Guyana;

Ja­maica;

St Kitts and Nevis;

Saint Lu­cia;

St Vin­cent and the Grenadines;

Suri­name; and

Trinidad and To­ba­go.

Q. Who can ap­ply for a Skills Cer­tifi­cate in Trinidad and To­ba­go?

A. Ac­cord­ing to Ar­ti­cle 46 of the Re­vised Treaty of Ch­aguara­mas, the fol­low­ing cat­e­gories of CARI­COM na­tion­als have the right to seek em­ploy­ment in any of the par­tic­i­pat­ing CSME Mem­ber States:

Uni­ver­si­ty Grad­u­ates

Artistes

Mu­si­cians

Me­dia Work­ers

Sportsper­sons

If a CARI­COM na­tion­al does not fall in any of the above-men­tioned cat­e­gories, he/she must ap­ply for a Work Per­mit from the re­ceiv­ing Mem­ber State.

Q. When will Trinidad and To­ba­go al­low na­tion­als to ap­ply for Skills Cer­tifi­cates in the ad­di­tion­al cat­e­gories?

A. Amend­ments to the Im­mi­gra­tion (Caribbean Com­mu­ni­ty Skilled Na­tion­als) Act have been ap­proved by the Leg­is­la­tion Re­view Com­mit­tee (LRC). Up­on ap­proval from Par­lia­ment, the fol­low­ing cat­e­gories would be able to seek em­ploy­ment in any of the par­tic­i­pat­ing CSME Mem­ber States:

Non-Grad­u­ate lev­el Nurs­es;

Non-Grad­u­ate lev­el Teach­ers;

Ar­ti­sans with a Caribbean Vo­ca­tion­al Qual­i­fi­ca­tion (CVQ);

Hold­ers of As­so­ciate De­grees or a com­pa­ra­ble qual­i­fi­ca­tion;

House­hold Do­mes­tics with a Caribbean Vo­ca­tion­al Qual­i­fi­ca­tion (CVQ) or an equiv­a­lent qual­i­fi­ca­tion; and

Beau­ty Ser­vice Prac­ti­tion­ers and Bar­bers - un­der the ex­ist­ing cat­e­go­ry of Artiste.

Q. Is there a fee at­tached in ob­tain­ing a CSME Skills Cer­tifi­cate?

A. In Trinidad and To­ba­go, a CSME Skills Cer­tifi­cate is cur­rent­ly free of charge. How­ev­er, Cab­i­net agreed to ap­ply an ad­min­is­tra­tive fee for the fol­low­ing:

CSME Skills Cer­tifi­cates;

Re­place­ment Skills Cer­tifi­cates; and

Lost, stolen or mu­ti­lat­ed Skills Cer­tifi­cates

Ad­min­is­tra­tive fees will be ap­plied on ap­proval of the leg­is­la­tion by Par­lia­ment.

Q. What are the BEN­E­FITS of the Free Move­ment Regime?

A. The ben­e­fits un­der the Free Move­ment Regime are:

There is free­dom to leave and re-en­ter the re­ceiv­ing State;

There are more op­por­tu­ni­ties for em­ploy­ment;

There is free­dom to buy or rent prop­er­ty for res­i­den­tial or com­mer­cial use;

Spous­es and im­me­di­ate de­pen­dent fam­i­ly mem­bers are al­lowed to move with the hold­er of the Skills Cer­tifi­cate;

There is no need to ob­tain a Work Per­mit;

Mem­bers of the Di­as­po­ra have the choice of 12 par­tic­i­pat­ing States to live, work or in­vest in;

Free­dom to reg­is­ter a busi­ness name;

Free­dom to in­cor­po­rate or reg­is­ter an in­cor­po­rat­ed com­pa­ny in­clud­ing agen­cies, branch­es and sub­sidiaries; and

The en­try of man­age­r­i­al, su­per­vi­so­ry and tech­ni­cal staff to serve the busi­ness with­out a work per­mit.