MIND Policy Forum to Discuss Outstanding Legal Issues under CSME

‘Outstanding Legal Issues in the CARICOM Single Market and Economy (CSME)’, will be the discussion topic at tomorrow’s (April 28) Friday Policy Forum hosted by the Management Institute for National Development (MIND).
The forum will be held at the Institute’s Old Hope Road campus from 12:30 p.m. to 2:30 p.m., with Head of the Legal Unit in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade, Michelle Walker, as the main speaker.
With the Revised Treaty of Chaguaramas coming into effect in Jamaica in January of this year, there were “obligations contained in the Treaty, which should have been implemented in domestic law,” Miss Walker told JIS News, noting that she would be giving an overview of those obligations and the extent to which Jamaica had implemented them.
Miss Walker, whose unit is responsible for giving legal advice on bilateral and multilateral negotiations, and policy decisions, inter alia, will also be examining some of the “thorny issues [relating to] free movement of persons, capital and the provision of services, and what it means both in law and in practice”.
She noted that there were areas in the Treaty that required more research in order to develop a further programme of action. These include “contingent rights, which are the rights persons would exercise once they have.exercised their freedom of movement, and the right to access educational services, social services, e-commerce, among other services,” she said.Also to be discussed is ‘Harmonising Intellectual Property Legislation’ under the CSME.
The Friday Policy Forum is an initiative of MIND and is designed to aid in the dissemination of information regarding government’s policies. The target audience is primarily senior executives in the public and private sectors and academia.
According to Miss Walker, the forum is “an opportunity to be part of the broader ministry/government public education exercise.”