Caribbean expert David Jessop writes in his The View from Europe column on how Caricom’s decision to side with the Haitian government campaign to secure Dominican citizenship for its immigrants and how what happens next is “far from clear “regarding inter-Caribbean relations. “Although the Dominican Republic has previously suggested that it has no desire to be isolated within the region in which it is located, it is likely that the emotional aspect of the rift will last, even if a basis can be found for a mediated settlement.”
Jessop writes: “This has significant implications for regional integration and in relation to trade agreements with external partners if, for example, the construct of Cariforum were to cease, or if achieving any future consensus on hemispheric or international issues were to become hostage to an inter-regional dispute of the kind that has emerged.”
He concludes: “The problem is that it is hard to see how Caricom, having backed Haiti on the basis of morality, will in future be able to repair what has already for almost all but a few trade negotiators, investors and traders, a distant relationship with the Dominican Republic; matters not helped by the fact that the media in the Anglophone and Hispanic Caribbean have little ability to report on the nuance of what is happening in each other’s part of the region.”
www.caribbean-council.org/sites/default/files/Dec8%20(A%20dispute%20with%20an%20uncertain%20outcome).pdf