Labour mobility and trade in the Americas

This is due, in part, to the fact that states have been hesitant to open the door to migration—even of the temporary sort—in the realm of trade.13 Governments usually want to keep certain policy arenas carefully behind the closed doors of national sovereignty,14 and policies that affect immigration regimes are usually at the top of the list.15 Even where trade agreements facilitate labour mobility [...] In sum, the DR-CAFTA is a good example of a regional trade agreement that is very restrictive in terms of the scope and nature of mobility.79 The author is still awaiting official U. S. statistics on the number of workers (if any) who have applied to enter the United States as service suppliers or professionals under the agreement, and in fact, discussions with U. S. authorities have led the autho [...] This question was addressed by examining the content of the three trade agreements (NAFTA, CARICOM’s CSME and DR-CAFTA) for any provisions that might address some of the diverse concerns identified in the first section of this paper.82 Annex 1 of this paper provides a list of the development, social and gender issues taken into consideration. [...] Our examination shows that all three FTAs included some kind of provisions for the facilitation of the cross-border movement of workers, as well as diverse measures for the ongoing liberalisation of such movement.83 Some of the common measures included in the agreements are: negotiating or preparing to negotiate standardized accreditation and licensing procedures in specific sectors; prohibitions [...] The Council for Trade and Economic Development (COTED) of the CSME is the designated body charged with “facilitating” the liberalisation of cross-border labour mobility in the CARICOM region; its mandate does not include monitoring the potential impacts of such mobility (CARICOM, “Revised Treaty of Chaguaramas,” Art.