WILLEMSTAD - The Kingdom Council of Ministers has officially withdrawn the controversial law on the Caribbean Body for Reform and Development (COHO). This decision was made after Curaçao, Aruba, and Sint Maarten signed an agreement with the Netherlands on April 4th. The COHO law was introduced by former State Secretary for Kingdom Relations Knops in July 2020 to regulate oversight on budget support packages which were offered to the Caribbean countries during the COVID-19 crisis.
The governments of Willemstad, Oranjestad, and Philipsburg initially agreed to the COHO law, despite concerns that their autonomy would be compromised. However, the parliaments of the Caribbean countries eventually rejected the law, strengthened by the negative advice from the Kingdom Council of State. The Dutch State Secretary Van Huffelen then suggested an alternative which led to the signing of an agreement between the countries. This agreement has largely the same content as the COHO law but eliminates the oversight by the Netherlands on the implementation of the budget support packages.
As a result, the Kingdom Council of Ministers has agreed to withdraw the COHO law, as proposed by Van Huffelen.