CARICOM leaders to meet on Wednesday to discuss COVID-19 pandemic

Caribbean Community (CARICOM) leaders will hold a special summit on Wednesday, April 15 to discuss the COVID-19 pandemic.

Prime Minister Mia Mottley, the current chairperson of the 15-nation grouping, said the talks would allow countries to “share ideas and share experiences first and foremost” about the impact of the deadly virus.

According to the latest figures from the Caribbean Public Health Agency, there are over 4,000 COVID-19 cases in 33 countries/territories in the Caribbean Region.

Mottley suggested the pandemic has also brought deeper issues for CARICOM to the fore, including the need to press forward with deepening the regional integration movement.

“Whether this is not the moment where CARICOM’s true promise is upon us. That the notion of a single domestic space, the notion of a single market and what therefore are those things that we need to do in order truly to allow our sovereign boundaries to have a virtual reality that is the CARICOM entity, the Caribbean Community, while the legal sovereign boundaries remain what we know,” she said.

Mottley explained this would entail member states creating “a common public health protocol and a common border policy.”