Minister of Energy and Business Senator Lisa Cummins reaffirmed that the Caribbean Community’s four-nation free movement regime does not erase national systems of professional licensing or regulation, as she sought to allay public concerns about potential erosion of standards.
As she tabled the Caribbean Community (Free Movement of Nationals) Bill — the framework law being used to govern the new October 1 free movement regime among Belize, Dominica, St Vincent and the Grenadines, and Barbados — Senator Cummins stressed that free movement is a mobility right, not a professional waiver.
“The movement of persons relates to the right to live and work,” she told the Senate. “It does not remove the responsibility of professionals to meet the qualification requirements of a given job. That does not take it away.”
She pointed to the medical profession as an example of how the existing architecture remains intact. “If you are a doctor . . . you have the Barbados Medical Council that has the responsibility for admitting you to practise.
That is the sole remit to license you as a doctor on an annual basis, inclusive of your continuous professional development requirements. This regime does not remove that.”
She made similar clarifications for other regulated professions. “If you are an accountant, this freedom of movement regime does not remove the ability of ICAB to function as the oversight body. If you are an attorney, the bar association remains the same. If you are a nurse . . . the nursing council remains the same. If you are a pharmacist, the requirements remain the same.”
The senator argued that regional cooperation could no longer be treated as aspirational rhetoric in the face of ongoing global volatility, particularly for small island developing states.
Quoting Prime Minister Mia Mottley’s April address to Caribbean leaders at the height of a global trade standoff, Senator Cummins recalled the warning: “In my capacity as chair of the Caribbean community, our world is in crisis. I will not sugarcoat it. These are among the most challenging times for our region since the majority of our members gained their independence.”
She reminded senators that the pressures outlined in April had only deepened. “This was in April. We are now almost in November.”
Senator Cummins also echoed the prime minister’s caution against selective regionalism. “[Mottley said]: ‘Those who wish to opt out or cherry pick only which aspects of the regional architecture work best for them might well heed the lessons of Brexit and the US$100 billion divorce bill Britain is now confronting because of the loss of the benefits of functional cooperation.’”
Calling the bill an extension of decades of integration work, Senator Cummins said Barbados’ leadership over the past several decades had built “institutional scaffolding” which must now be defended, not dismantled.
“It requires courage and boldness,” she said. “If ever there was a time for regional solidarity, regional identity, regional union, unity . . . it is absolutely now.”
(SB)
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