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alexk
Guest
Leaders of the Caribbean Community (Caricom) have agreed to a proposal from Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley that Trinidad and Tobago host a conference on the Caricom Single Market and Economy in November of this year.
The decision came on the closing day of the 39th regular meeting of the Heads of Government of Caricom at the Montego Bay Convention Centre in Jamaica yesterday.
The Office of the Prime Minister in a statement issued yesterday said an official communiqué of all decisions taken will be made available.
But it announced that a “notable decision taken,” was the agreement to host the special single item conference in Port-of-Spain in November.
In addition, the OPM said Rowley engaged in a bilateral meeting with the President of the Republic of Chile Sebastián Piñera yesterday.
President Piñera succeeded former President Michelle Bachelet, who hosted Rowley to an official visit to Chile in May 2017.
Yesterday, Jamaica’s Prime Minister Andrew Holness signed a protocol amending the Revised Treaty of Chaguaramas to incorporate the Council for National Security and Law Enforcement as an organ of the Caribbean Community (Caricom) and the Caricom Implementation Agency for Crime and Security as an institution of the community.
The Revised Treaty of Chaguaramas establishing Caricom, including the Caricom Single Market and Economy (CSME), was signed in 2001.
Among the objectives are improved standards of living and work in member countries; accelerated, coordinated and sustained economic development; and organisation for increased production and productivity.
The agreement was among three signed by Holness during the Caricom meeting. Holness also signed an agreement relating to the Caricom Arrest Warrant Treaty.
That treaty seeks to establish a system of arrest and surrender of requested people within the community for the purpose of conducting a criminal prosecution for an applicable offence; or executing a custodial sentence where the requested persons have fled from justice after being sentenced for an applicable offence.
The third agreement pertains to the Revised Agreement for the Establishment of the Caribbean Examinations Council (CXC). That agreement seeks to update the CXC’s legal structure in light of organisational practices, recent market developments and current needs.
Emphasis will also be placed on accommodating requests from additional territories and institutions to join or otherwise participate in the CXC.
The documents were to be signed by all Caricom heads during the course of yesterday.
The meeting this week received a comprehensive report on medicinal marijuana from the 10-member Regional Marijuana Commission which was established earlier this year to investigate the issue of marijuana use in the region.
The Commission was chaired by Professor Rosemarie Belle-Antoine, Head of the Faculty of Law at UWI, St Augustine.
While speculation remains about the report’s findings, many are hopeful it will lead to the legalisation of the drug.