ABSTRACT
INTRODUCTION-SETTING THE CONTEXT FOR REGULATION
The Caribbean Community (CARICOM)1 stands at the threshold of regional integration. With the commencement of the Caribbean Single Market and Economy (CSME), we are at an important crossroads. A host of regulatory changes⎯social, legal and economic⎯will frame this economic integration, with a view to possible political integration in the future. Already, CARICOM has signed agreements permitting the free movement of labour, viewed as an essential tool in the integration process. It is therefore timely and important to reconsider the question of labour regulation. In 2008 CARICOM governments also committed to Economic Partnership Agreements with Europe. These are bilateral instruments which seek to prize open developing country markets to European fi rms and secure binding WTO-plus commitments in the EU’s bilateral trade agreements, but which may have negative effects on Caribbean integration and its long-term goals of development.
