Caribbean nations approach single-market milestone.

Byline: Michael A.W. Ottey

PORT-OF-SPAIN, Trinidad _ With the entrepreneurial spirit of a Donald Trump _ minus the comb-over and the ego _ real estate manager and marketer Steven Brodber looks forward to the day he can travel from his native Jamaica to other Caribbean countries without a passport, visa or commerce-hindering restrictions.

That day is coming.

By December 2005, the Caribbean Community, a 15-member grouping of the region's mainly English-speaking nations, will establish a single market that will remove all restrictions on the free movement of goods, services, workers and capital.

In a splintered region this milepost has at times seemed unreachable. But the Caribbean Community, or CARICOM, is closer than ever to its goal of one market, one economy, and maybe someday one political union.

When the CARICOM Single Market and Economy kicks in next year, only certain Caribbean citizens will be able to take advantage of unrestricted movement: university graduates, skilled laborers, artists and media professionals. But CARICOM leaders will consider extending eligibility to others.

Sixteen years in the making, the single market would be a monumental leap toward one passport for CARICOM nationals, a single currency and, perhaps the boldest step, the establishment of a political union.