On Tuesday evening, Prime Minister Mottley signed, on behalf of the people of Barbados, the Multilateral Air Services Agreement (MASA) in the margins of the 18th Special Meeting of the Conference of Heads of Government of CARICOM on the CARICOM Single Market and Economy (CSME) held in Port-of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago.
The MASA intends to serve as a mechanism to maximise the economic and social benefits arising from aviation activities for CARICOM Air Carriers, consistent with the Revised Treaty of Chaguaramas.
The agreement expands the scope for airlines owned by CARICOM nationals to provide air services throughout the 15-member grouping. It allows for no restriction on routes and capacity or traffic rights and should facilitate increased intra-regional travel and provide more cargo options for exporters and importers with resulting cost savings.
Guyana and Saint Vincent and the Grenadines signed on to the MASA in February at the 29th Inter-Sessional Summit held in Port-au-Prince, Haiti.
Prime Minister Mottley also signed the declaration of intent for Barbados to provisionally apply the Protocol on Contingent Rights that are to be extended to CARICOM nationals under the Skilled Nationals Programme and under the Rights of Establishment and Provision of Services regime.
In July, at the 39th Meeting of the Conference, CARICOM Heads of Government have acknowledged that if CARICOM nationals are moving from their home territory to another CARICOM member state for the purpose of setting up in business or working in a job, that provision must be made for their spouses, minor children and dependent parents to be able to join them and to be suitably accommodated in the new host country.
Thus the “Protocol on Contingent Rights” grants to a spouse not only the right to unrestricted travel to and from the new host country, but also the right to live and work in the host country without the need for any Work Permit.
Similarly, dependent children have also been granted rights to live in the host country and to access primary education therein on the same terms as citizens of the host country.