CARICOM: 40 YEARS OF ACHIEVEMENT
Celebrating four decades of progress and prosperity For 40 years, Regional integration has been driven by the central aims of improving economic and social wellbeing for all. While the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) can look back with pride at the progress it has made since them, it is time to increase the pace towards greater prosperity
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t the start of the 1970s, in the early days of the Region’s independence from European colonial powers, Commonwealth Caribbean leaders came together and recognised that their countries would be able to achieve greater growth and prosperity by working together. They saw that integration would advance their interests, while discord could only deepen their challenges. The Caribbean Community (CARICOM) can look back with pride at the progress it has made since that time. In addition to national initiatives to improve living standards, education, healthcare provision and investment, CARICOM leaders and businesses have been cooperating to build on their strengths and fuel growth throughout the Region, thanks to the provisions for freer trade, economic integration, cooperation on human and social development and coordinated foreign policy promoted by CARICOM. When the leaders met at the 7th Heads of Government Conference in 1972, they decided to transform the existing Caribbean Free Trade Association (CARIFTA) into a common market and establish a Caribbean Community. CARIFTA ceased to exist in 1973, paving the way for the signing that year of the Treaty of Chaguaramas, which laid the foundation for free movement of labour and capital and the foreign-policy coordination. CARICOM has since grown to include 15 Member States and five Associate Members. In 1989, in response to the challenges and opportunities presented by changes in the global economy, Member States reaffirmed the Community’s core objectives and broadened them to include the creation of the CARICOM Single Market and Economy (CSME). The CSME, which set new goals for Regional integration, came into operation in 2006. OF CARICOM’s 15 Member States, 12 are now actively participating in the Single Market. This transformation required the Treaty to be revised, a project that was taken on by an intergovernmental taskforce set up in 1992. Between 1993 and 2000, the taskforce, which comprised representatives of all Member States, produced nine protocols aimed at amending the Treaty. These were later combined to create a new version of the Treaty: the Revised Treaty of Chaguaramas Establishing the Caribbean Community, including the CARICOM Single Market and Economy. The revised Treaty builds on the free movement of goods. It includes provisions on the free movement of people and services, and the right of CARICOM nationals to establish business in any Member State. It also makes provisions for addressing important new issues – such as e-commerce, government procurement, the trade in goods from free zones, the free circulation of goods and the free movement of people – using additional protocols.
Given the importance of free movement in the context of the revised Treaty, efforts have been made to unify travel documents across CARICOM. Antigua and Barbuda, Barbados, Belize, Dominica, Grenada, Guyana, Jamaica, Saint Lucia, St Kitts and Nevis, St Vincent and the Grenadines, Suriname and Trinidad and Tobago now issue common CARICOM passports that reinforce nationals’ awareness of being members of the Community.
Organisation and objectives In accordance with the revised Treaty, CARICOM’s principal organs – the Conference of Heads of Government and the Community Council of Ministers – are assisted by Councils, Committees and the Secretariat, which is the principle administrative organ. The Councils are: n Finance and Planning (COFAP), which coordinates economic policy and financial and monetary integration across Member States; n Trade and Economic Development (COTED), which promotes trade and economic development and oversees the operations of the CSME; n Foreign and Community Relations (COFCOR), which determines relations to international organisations and Third States; and n Human and Social Development (COHSOD), which promotes development in areas such as health, education, culture and sport. In 2007, a fifth Council, National Security and Law Enforcement (CONSLE), was added to coordinate security and law enforcement arrangements across the Community. The Committees are: n the Legal Affairs Committee, comprising Attorneys-General, which provides legal advice; n the Budget Committee, which examines the Secretariat’s draft budget and work programme and submits recommendations to the Community Council; and n the Committee of Central Bank Governors, which provides recommendations to the COFAP on monetary and financial matters. In 2005, the Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ) was inaugurated in Trinidad and Tobago, where it is also headquartered. The CCJ’s mission is to “perform to the highest standards as the supreme judicial organ in the Caribbean Community. In its original jurisdiction, it ensures uniform interpretation and application of the Revised Treaty of Chaguaramas, thereby underpinning and advancing the CARICOM Single Market and Economy. As the final court of appeal for Member States of the Caribbean Community, it fosters the development of an indigenous Caribbean jurisprudence.”
CARICOM AT 40
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