Under the US proposal, all American citizens visiting the Caribbean must be in possession of a valid US passport in order to re-enter the United States. The new measure was set to be introduced in January 2006 - a year before the same rules go into effect for visitors to Canada and Mexico.

According to US State Department spokesman Steve Pike, the US government is now reconsidering the deadline. "The review of the timeline is indicative of our desire to be flexible, practical, and pragmatic and to listen to public feedback," he stated.

The new rules are designed to prevent criminals and terrorists from entering the United States through the Caribbean, Mexico and Canada. However, the proposals have caused alarm in many Caribbean territories, which fear that the measures will have a devastating impact on their tourism industries. Despite the fact that only 20% of the US population are in possession of a passport, Americans accounted for 53% of the 22 million visitors to the region last year, as US visitors can enter 27 Caribbean countries without a passport.

A study by Caribbean Hotel Association (CHA), revealed at the Caribbean Tourism Organisation Board of Directors meeting in New York in June, warned that the Caribbean could lose as much as $2.6 billion in earnings from visitor arrivals as a result of the new passport regulation, putting more than 188,000 jobs at risk.

“CHA can appreciate US concern for its security, but cannot lose sight of the impact of the new regulations on Caribbean travel and tourism, which will be a permanent realignment of traffic, with spontaneous, last minute travel significantly reduced,” warned CHA President Berthia Parle.