EDITORIAL - Reprising the Polish plumber

When Winston Dookeran, Trinidad and Tobago's foreign minister, meets his Jamaican counterpart A.J. Nicholson tomorrow to discuss a range of fraught issues, he might be tempted to break the ice with a joke about the Polish plumber.

The Polish plumber was the metaphor for the expected invasion of the rest of the European Union (EU) by low-wage immigrants from the 10 Central and Eastern European countries, including Poland, that were set to join the EU a decade ago. In response to the fears of their populations, several of the then 15 members of the EU placed limits on emigration from the accession countries.

The spectre of the Polish plumber is again on the rise in Europe, especially in Britain, in the face of the expiry at the end of this year, on similar immigration restraints on Bulgarians and Romanians, whose countries joined the EU in 2007.

Last week, for instance, David Cameron, the British prime minister, unveiled a raft of measures that will limit the right of other EU nationals to make claims on the UK's social and unemployment services. The absence of such restrictions in the 2004 EU expansion, Mr Cameron feels, led to that feared flood of Polish plumbers: over half a million of them.

The point is that the free movement of people and labour can be a difficult and querulous matter, even in a mature single market and economy of primarily First World countries, as represented by the EU. That is why this newspaper welcomes the tone that Mr Nicholson has sought to establish for tomorrow's talks.

Clarity once again

"I am confident that these discussions will help to bring clarity once again and will demonstrate that the challenges that will arise from time to time in any integration movement must be met with temperance and maturity," he said. Which, of course, doesn't mean that Jamaica shouldn't press its interests and ensure that the Trinidadians play by the rules, whether on immigration or their wide obligations to the Caribbean Community (CARICOM), including trade.

The immediate trigger of these talks was the public anger in Jamaica over the recent denial of entry of 13 Jamaican nationals, who claim a denial of their rights under the Revised Treaty of Chaguaramas, but who Port-of-Spain claims did not meet entry criteria. Jamaicans are chagrined, in part, because they believe that they are treated unfairly when travelling in the region, not because of their specific circumstance, but rather because of a negative perception of their country, fostered by its economic situation.

Further, Trinidad and Tobago enjoys a surplus of nearly US$1 billion on its trade with Jamaica, even as there is a view that it cheats on regional trade rules.

It is important that Messrs Nicholson and Dookeran talk frankly on these matters. Mr Dookeran must not be in doubt that Jamaica is willing to robustly pursue its interests, while fixing real problems of competitiveness in the domestic economy.

But we see another value in the political dimension of these talks. Jamaica, on the diplomatic/political front, and Trinidad and Tobago, economically, are effectively the leaders of CARICOM.

A regular, structured engagement between them may settle not only bilateral issues, but be the driver for attending to wider regional matters - like it used to be with France and Germany in the EU.

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