by Linda Straker
- MOA is statement of intent
- Does not create legal obligations under international or domestic law
- MOA mandates that from 1 June, OECS territories to have common standards and regulations for CBI programmes
Editor’s note: Quoted statements from Mr Mc Claude Emmanuel were edited/corrected after cross-checking with clearer recordings of the conference proceedings. NOW Grenada apologies for the error.
Mc Claude Emmanuel, Chief Executive Officer of the St Lucia Citizenship by Investment Unit, has given the assurance that Prime Minister Philip J Pierre will be signing the Memorandum of Agreement (MOA) that requires OECS territories to have common standards and regulations for their Citizenship by Investment (CBI) programmes.
In March 2024, Grenada, Antigua and Barbuda, Dominica, St Kitts and Nevis signed the MOA, which mandates that from 1 June, all territories with citizenship programmes will establish terms and conditions under which they will cooperate and share information regarding their CBI programmes to enhance the integrity, security and efficiency of the programmes.
St Lucia did not sign the document on 20 March. However, on 23 May, while contributing to a panel discussion on the topic “Resilience: Strengthening the Adaptability and Sustainability of Caribbean Investment Migration” during the 2024 Caribbean Investment Summit, Emmanuel said that St Lucia will sign the non-legally binding agreement but did not provide a date.
The 22–24 May summit is taking place at the Conference Centre of the Radisson Grenada Beach Resort.
“Obviously, I think a lot of persons here probably find it funny that St Lucia is speaking on common standards, whilst… we’ve been the only ones who have not signed the memorandum of agreement. However, I could assure everyone that I spoke to the Prime Minister and St Lucia will sign the MOA” he said to over 200 participants during the first panel discussion at the summit.
Explaining the delay to delegates who represented governments in the OECS CBI jurisdiction and international service providers to the CBI industry, he said, “In the first instance, we just felt that there were some areas that we wanted to be tweaked and some concessions made. And as I said in a different forum, what we were requesting is not unique to St Lucia. I think it was our dear friends from Grenada when we met at the US State Department, wanted some concessions on how we treat Russian applications, and they got another 4–6 weeks to facilitate the processing of Russian applications. So I think we had some contracts in place that we wanted either to grandfather or have some time to negotiate how we amend them.”
The MOA, among other things, provides for 5 CBI territories to establish a regional competent authority to set standards in accordance with international requirements and best practices and to regulate the programmes. This regional competent authority is to be established or identified no later than 30 June 2024.
In the area of regulations of agents, marketing, and promotions promotion, the agreement said that the participating countries will establish common standards to manage the communications and promotion of the CBI programmes.
“Such standards shall prohibit marketing of CBIPS for granting of ‘visa-free-access’ and the use of photographs of parties’ passports in advertisements,” said the agreement.
The MOA is a statement of intent and does not create legal obligations under international or domestic law. It has a clause allowing it to be amended or terminated by unanimous consent of the parties who signed the agreement, and disputes arising from or in connection with it shall be amicably resolved through negotiations.
