Cayman Islands To Remain Outside CARICOM

by Robert Lee, Tax-News.com, London

07 July 2005

Attending the CARICOM meeting in St Lucia this week, Kurt Tibbetts, Leader of Government Business of the Cayman Islands, said that his country will keep its current relationship with the Community.

Cayman has associate membership of CARICOM. It did not sign the Treaty of Chaguaramas in 1973 and does not participate in voting although its representatives attend CARICOM meetings with observer status.

It is supposed that Cayman may participate in the proposed 'laisser passer' system which would see the introduction of CARICOM passports for certain types of individual, such as “graduates, artists, musicians, media workers and sports persons,” but even that idea touches sensitivities in Cayman, which jealously guards the rights of its local work-force.

Certainly Cayman will not participate in the CSME (Single Market and Economy) which is due to get off to a stuttering start this year, although proposals for a regional bond market or stock market would limp along without the participation of Cayman's stock market and its enormous banking sector (more than $1 trillion in assets).

Mr Tibbetts said that Cayman is continuing to repair the damage from last year's hurricane Ivan, although he was disappointed that only limited amounts of assistance had been received from abroad.

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