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Caribbean Community

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The Caribbean Community and Common Market or CARICOM was established by the Treaty of Chaguaramas[Treaty of Chaguaramas] which came into effect on August 1, 1973. The first four signatories were Barbados, Jamaica, Guyana and Trinidad and Tobago.

CARICOM replaced the 1965–1972 Caribbean Free Trade Association (CARIFTA), which had been organized to provide a continued economic linkage between the English-speaking countries of the Caribbean following the dissolution of the West Indies Federation which lasted from January 3, 1958 to May 31, 1962.

A Revised Treaty of Chaguaramas [Revised Treaty of Chaguaramas] establishing the Caribbean Community including the CARICOM Single Market and Economy (CSME) was signed by the Heads of Government of the Caribbean Community on July 5 2001 at their Twenty-Second Meeting of the Conference in Nassau, The Bahamas.

Flag of the CARICOM
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Flag of the CARICOM

Contents

Overview

The Caribbean Community (CARICOM) has become unofficially multilingual in practice with the addition of Dutch-speaking Suriname on July 4 1995 and Haiti, where French and Haitian Creole are spoken, on July 2 2002.

In 2001, the heads of government signed a Revised Treaty of Chaguaramas thus clearing the way for the transformation of the Common Market aspect of CARICOM. Part of the revised treaty includes the establishment and implementation of the Caribbean Court of Justice.

Membership

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Currently CARICOM has 15 full members:

There are five associate members: There are seven observers: Since March 2004, Haiti's participation in CARICOM was suspended by its interim Prime Minister, Gerard Latortue in response the visit of Jean-Bertrand Aristide (the ousted President) to Jamaica[Haiti suspends ties with CARICOM]. Haiti's membership had been effectively suspended though since February 29, 2004 as CARICOM refused to recognize the new interim government. In early June 2006, Haiti was readmitted as a full member of the CARICOM, and Haitian President Rene Preval gave the opening address at the organization's Council of Ministers meeting in July.

In July 1999, Anguilla once again became involved with CARICOM when it gained associate membership. Prior to this, Anguilla had briefly been a part of CARICOM (1974-1980) as a constituent of the full member state of Saint Christopher-Nevis-Anguilla.

In 2005 the Foreign Minister of the Dominican Republic had proposed seeking to obtain full membership status in CARICOM for his country; however, due to the sheer size of the Dominican Republic's economy and population size in comparison with the current CARICOM states, and coupled with the Dominican Republic's checkered history of foreign policy solidarity with the CARICOM states it is unclear whether the CARICOM states will unanimously vote to admit the Dominican Republic as a full member into the organization.It has been proposed that CARICOM may deepen ties with the Dominican Republic through the auspice of the Association of Caribbean States (ACS) instead, which is an organisation that stops just short of the proposed political integration which will underpin CARICOM at a later date. Currently, the Dominican Republic also has a free trade agreement (from 2001) with CARICOM and also cooperates with CARICOM (since 1992) under the umbrella organization, Cariforum, in economic negotiations with the EU[The EU and Cariforum].

See also: Trade bloc

Structure

After the revised Treaty of Chaguaramas, CARICOM reorganised itself into a state like Government structure made up of the following branches:

The Executive

Comprising of a rotating prime ministerial Chairmanship of CARICOM (Head of CARICOM), the CARICOM Secretary General (Chief Executive) and the CARICOM Headquarters secretariat (Chief Administrative Organ). There is also a quasi Cabinet of individual Heads of Government who are given specific responsibility or portfalios for overall regional development and integration.[Regoinal Portfolios of CARICOM Heads of Government]

The Legislative

The Community Council: The Council consists of Ministers responsible for Community Affairs and any other Minister designated by the Member States in their absolute discretion. It is one of the the principal organs (the other being the Conference of the Heads of Government) and is supported by four other organs and three bodies.

Supporting Organs

Supporting Bodies

The Judiciary

The Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ) will act as the original jurisdiction for settlement of disputes on the functioning of the Caribbean (CARICOM) Single Market and Economy (CSME), as well as serving as an appellate court of last resort for member states which have severed their country's ties with the Privy Council in London, United Kingdom. The CCJ is based in Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago.

Caribbean Community organs and bodies

Structures that comprise the Caribbean Community (CARICOM).

Secretariat

The Secretariat is located in Georgetown, Guyana.
The goal statement of the CARICOM Secretariat is:>> "To provide dynamic leadership and service, in partnership with Community institutions and Groups, toward the attainment of a viable, internationally competitive and sustainable Community, with improved quality of life for all."

Caribbean Community Institutions

Associate Institutions

Secondary organs

Other bodies

CARICOM projects

Three countries: Barbados, Jamaica and Trinidad and Tobago had originally set January 5 2005 as the date of signing the agreement relating to the (CSME), the ceremony had then been rescheduled to coincide with the February 19, 2005 inauguration of the new CARICOM-headquarters building in Georgetown, Guyana. But this was later posponed after a ruling by the London Privy council caused alarm to several Caribbean countries.

The prospect was that ten of the remaining twelve CARICOM countries would join the CSME by the end of 2005. The Bahamas and Haiti were not expected to be a part of the new economic arrangement at that time. The CARICOM Secretariat maintains frequent contact with another organisation named the Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States (OECS), which represents seven Full members and two Associate members of CARICOM in the Eastern Caribbean. Many of the OECS countries are seeking to maintain themselves as a micro-economic grouping within CARICOM.

The CARICOM Single Market Economy treaty finally went into effect on 1 January 2006 with Barbados, Belize, Jamaica, Guyana, Suriname and Trinidad and Tobago as the first full members. On 3 July 2006 the total membership was brought up to twelve when Antigua and Barbuda, Dominica, Grenada, St. Kitts and Nevis, St. Lucia and St. Vincent and the Grenadines became full members. The British overseas territory of Montserrat is seeking permission from the United Kingdom to become a part of the single market; Haiti will not join the market initially because of the difficult internal political situation; and the Bahamas will not join because of local opposition to a provision that allows skilled workers to move more easily among nations.

The CARICOM Common Passport

On Friday, January 7, 2005, the Republic of Suriname became the first full member state to officially launch the new bloc "CARICOM Passport". The new passports boast having better security and are also machine-readable. The full member states of the Caribbean Community had agreed to establish a common passport in order to make intra-regional and international travel easier for their citizens. The passports are also thought to save additional costs for member states by using a similar cover design, the designs will also follow newly updated international standards on Passport design.

The second state that released the national CARICOM passport was Saint Vincent and the Grenadines: SVG began issuing the new CARICOM passports around April 2005. On 25 October 2005, St. Kitts and Nevis became the third CARICOM member state to bring the CARICOM passport into operation, making good on its promise to launch it before the end of the year and began Issuance of the document to its citizens on 14 November 2005[St. Kitts and Nevis launches CARICOM passport].

Antigua and Barbuda had annouced that it would begin using the new CARICOM passport format by the middle of 2005.

Currently (as of mid-2006) five Member States have introduced CARICOM passports. These states are Suriname, St. Kitts and Nevis, Dominica, St. Vincent and the Grenadines and Antigua and Barbduda[Lesser Known Facts about the CSM].

The CARICOM passport creates awareness that CARICOM nationals are nationals of the Community, as well as a specific country.

The expectation is that all the member states will have introduced the CARICOM passport by 2008 when the stock of their old passports is depleted.

Jamaica is expected to institute the passport by 2007, having recently upgraded its passport to a machine-readable state.

The Co-operative Republic of Guyana had also announced that it would begin to use the new CARICOM passport format by the middle of 2005, but the introduction was delayed and the new target date is July 2006.

Trinidad and Tobago had annouced that it would begin to issue the new CARICOM passport in June 2006, but has now indicated that they will now introduce the passport in July 2006 along with Guyana[Lesser Known Facts about the CSM].

Passport designs

The three colours of the new passports are: In the case of Suriname, the Passport is adorned with the national symbols for the Republic of Suriname, as well as the CARICOM insignia on its cover. President of the Republic of Suriname Ronald Venetiaan received the first of these new CARICOM passports.

Antigua and Barbuda's design is to feature the country's Coat of Arms and country name as well as the CARICOM logo.

The passports for Suriname were created by the Canadian Banknote Company Ltd. (CBN) Under a five-year programme with a price tag of US$1.5 million. It is believed other member states of CARICOM will now soon follow with the introduction of their own branded version of the national 'CARICOM' Passport.

Future proposals

Free trade

From around the year 2000, the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) states have placed a new focus and emphasis on establishing Free Trade Agreements (FTAs) with local and international trading partners. This is particially done in collaboration with the Caribbean Regional Negociating Machinery (CRNM).

Preferential agreements
Free Trade Agreements
Proposed
Note that the on-going negotiations with the EU over an Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA) involves all the CARICOM Member States (except Montserrat, which is not independent) plus the Dominican Republic grouped under the Caribbean Forum or CARIFORUM sub-grouping of the ACP countries. At the end of these negotiations (begun in 2002 and due to end in 2007) there will be a new Free Trade Agreement that will replace the Lomé system of preferential access to the European market for the ACP from 2008.[Economic Partnership Agreements]

Comparison with other regional blocs

Trade bloc#Most active regional blocs>Most active regional blocs
Regional
bloc 1 		Area (km²) Population GDP (PPP) ($US) Member
states 1
in millions per capita
EU 3,977,487 460,124,266 11,723,816 25,480 25
CARICOM 462,344 14,565,083 64,219 4,409 14+1 3
ECOWAS 5,112,903 251,646,263 342,519 1,361 15
CEMAC 3,020,142 34,970,529 85,136 2,435 6
EAC 1,763,777 97,865,428 104,239 1,065 3
CSN 17,339,153 370,158,470 2,868,430 7,749 10
GCC 2,285,844 35,869,438 536,223 14,949 6
SACU 2,693,418 51,055,878 541,433 10,605 5
COMESA 3,779,427 118,950,321 141,962 1,193 5
NAFTA 21,588,638 430,495,039 12,889,900 29,942 3
ASEAN 4,400,000 553,900,000 2,172,000 4,044 10
SAARC 5,136,740 1,467,255,669 4,074,031 2,777 8
Agadir 1,703,910 126,066,286 513,674 4,075 4
EurAsEC 20,789,100 208,067,618 1,689,137 8,118 6
CACM 422,614 37,816,598 159,536 4,219 5
PARTA 528,151 7,810,905 23,074 2,954 12+2 3
Reference
blocs and
countries 2 		Area (km²) Population GDP (PPP) ($US) Political
divisions
in millions per capita
UN 133,178,011 6,411,682,270 55,167,630 8,604 192
Canada 9,984,670 32,507,874 1,077,000 34,273 13
China (PRC) 4 9,596,960 1,306,847,624 8,182,000 6,300 33
India 3,287,590 1,102,600,000 3,433,000 3,100 35
Russia 17,075,200 143,782,338 1,282,000 8,900 89
USA 9,631,418 296,900,571 11,190,000 39,100 50
1 Including data only for full and most active members
2 The first two states in the World by area, population and GDP (PPP)
3 Including non-sovereign autonomous entities of other states
4 Data for the People's Republic of China does not include Hong Kong, Macau and
regions administered by the Republic of China (Taiwan). ██  ██  During 2004. Source: CIA World Factbook 2005, IMF WEO Database
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Other links of intrest

CSME

References

External links


 
Caribbean Community (CARICOM)

Antigua and Barbuda | Bahamas¹ | Barbados | Belize | Dominica | Grenada | Guyana | Haiti¹ | Jamaica | Montserrat² | Saint Kitts and Nevis | Saint Lucia | Saint Vincent and the Grenadines | Suriname | Trinidad and Tobago
Associate members: Anguilla | Bermuda | Cayman Islands | British Virgin Islands | Turks and Caicos Islands
Observer status: Aruba | Colombia | Dominican Republic | Mexico | Netherlands Antilles | Puerto Rico | Venezuela
¹ member of the community but not the CARICOM (Caribbean) Single Market and Economy.
² territory of the United Kingdom just awaiting British instruments of entrustment to join the (CSME)

 

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