OECS leaders at odds over CBI programme

ST JOHN’S (CMC):

Two leaders from the Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States (OECS) are at odds over the benefit of the controversial Citizenship By Investment (CBI) programme that some regional countries use to attract foreign investments.

Under the CBI programme, foreign investors are provided with citizenship of a country in return for making a significant contribution to the socio-economic development of that country.

St Vincent and the Grenadines has stood out as the only independent OECS country without a CBI programme.

Prime Minister Dr Ralph Gonsalves responded to a recent ruling by the European Union’s top court against the CBI, while noting that the main opposition New Democratic Party (NDP) in Kingstown used to cite the CBI programmes in EU nations, Cyprus, Bulgaria and Malta.

“I explained my opposition and the government’s opposition to selling passports and selling citizenship. First of all, it’s wrong in principle,” Gonsalves said, reiterating that citizenship is the highest office in the country.

“The highest office in the land can’t be for sale. And the passport is the outward sign of the inward grace of citizenship, and that, too, is not a commodity for sale,” Gonsalves said, noting that the CBI is “reckless, and not sustainable, because … the countries you’d want to go – Canada, Britain, United States and Europe – they’re going to be closing their doors on it.

“All the signs are there, and it’s reckless to run your government on passport money and citizenship money.”

But his Antigua and Barbuda counterpart, Gaston Browne, has taken umbrage at Gonsalves’ statement, rejecting his suggestion that the CBI could result in visa restrictions for countries that operate the programmes.

He said that Gonsalves was peddling the arguments of the same people who are opposed to any innovation that developing countries devise to carve out a space for themselves.

VISA-FREE ACCESS

“I don’t know why Ralph believes that the CBI countries will lose visa-free access, and that St Vincent and the Grenadines will be able to retain visa-free access,” Browne said on his weekly radio show.

“At the end of the day, we’re operating within the same space, and as I said before, the same stick that beats the wild goat is the same one that going beat the tame.

“To the best of my knowledge, St Vincent and the Grenadines has no visa-free access into Canada, but you no have no CBI programme. And why do you think that if the European Union were to revoke the visa-free access of the CBI OECS … that St Vincent and the Grenadines will continue into perpetuity?”

The Antigua and Barbuda prime minister, who along with Gonsalves, met with the United States Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, in Washington on Tuesday, said that OECS countries should be supporting one another..

“They may use CBI to stop our visa-free access, but they’ll use some other reason to stop visa-free access to St Vincent and the Grenadines. So, it is not appropriate for Ralph to be trashing us with the hope that we lose our visa-free access.”

Antigua and Barbuda, Grenada, Dominica, St Kitts-Nevis, and St Lucia each has a CBI programme. While St Vincent and the Grenadines had a CBI programme, Gonsalves’ Unity Labour Party (ULP) administration rescinded after it came to office in 2001.

Since then, Gonsalves has remained firmly opposed to CBI, and the NDP has promised that should it win the next general election widely expected by November, ahead of the February 2026 constitutional deadline, it will reinstate the CBI.

Browne said that CBI helps Caribbean countries to meet their developmental needs amidst a hostile global environment, telling radio listeners “these international institutions and these large countries don’t care about us.

“We’re on the fringes of global development. And if we don’t try and have a little carve out somewhere in order to protect the living standards of our people, we’re going to see a denigration in the living standards.”

He said he found that Gonsalves “went too hard” on countries with CBI, adding that he hoped that they could remain friends after responding to the Vincentian prime minister’s comments.

Browne said St John’s runs a legitimate investment immigration programme that is no different than the EB-5 visa program in the United States, under which people who invest can become permanent residents, a pathway to citizenship.

“It’s no different than the one in Canada. It’s no different than those in the European Union,” Browne said.

“I also want to say to Ralph that we have not published a single application without appropriate due diligence, which includes international due diligence agencies and regional institutions, global institutions, including INTERPOL and the Trinidad-based CARICOM Implementing Agency for Crime and Security here within the Caribbean region, or JRCC (The Joint Regional Communications Centre) for that matter.”