St. Vincent and the Grenadines is not included in the roster of nations that will experience the revocation of visa-free privileges for entry into the United Kingdom.
On the 31st of July, the Prime Minister of the SVG, Ralph Gonsalves, unequivocally denied the claim made by the Associated Times that St. Vincent and the Grenadines (SVG) was among the OECS countries impacted by the United Kingdom’s decision.
It is anticipated that the United Kingdom would revoke the privilege of visa-free entry for Antigua, St. Kitts, St. Lucia, and Grenada by the end of 2023. Notably, Dominica has already had its visa-free access rescinded.
Gonsalves noted that despite the exclusion of this nation from the list of impacted nations, he will need to remain vigilant regarding the actions of bureaucrats.
“One of the things of which I will have to make sure is that some bureaucrat somewhere doesn’t want to drag us into that mess of which we are not part”.
“If you look at the release from the British government, St. Vincent and the Grenadines is not on the list because we don’t sell passports. We don’t sell citizenship, but we have to make sure that everybody understands that we have not been in this business as they are clamping down now”.
According to Gonsalves, there are three separate techniques for addressing this particular issue.
“One, you roll over and play dead, which we’re not doing. Secondly, you make accommodations, and thirdly, you resist creatively”.
“So you make accommodations and you resist creatively, as all the circumstances admit and require. That’s the strategic frame, but never to roll over and play dead”, Gonsalves said.
On Monday, July 24, the Prime Minister expressed that the United Kingdom’s efforts to address the issue of citizenship by investment (CBI) in Dominica and four other nations within the Organization of Eastern Caribbean States (OECS) could potentially affect the currency union as a whole. Severe impacts are anticipated for certain islands.
“Severe implications, and some of them substantial, because the money for the CBI program is used as revenue, which goes to their recurrent expenditure”.
“It may have some knock-on effects also for the whole currency union, but that is a matter that we will have to deal with as we go along”.
According to Gonsalves, it is anticipated that the exchange rate would not pose a significant concern, but rather a potential drop in economic activity.
“You’re not going to have an alteration in the exchange rate, but if you have less US dollars coming in, you’re going to have less EC dollars in circulation, which means it would have a dampening effect on economic activity and very specifically on the fiscal front for those countries to pay the bills on a monthly basis, he said.
