The current international political and economic context has meant that Caribbean countries face a difficult situation today in diverse areas, ranging from the effects of natural disasters to a shortage of resources, complex access to financing, narrow fiscal space for introducing social reforms, and the burden of high …

Following the dissolution of the West Indian Federation, a political union in the region, CARIFTA was established to strengthen and encourage economic activity among its members primarily by removing tariffs and quotas on goods produced within the trade bloc.

Specifically, CARIFTA was intended to encourage balanced development of the Region by: • increasing trade – buying and selling more goods among the Member States. • diversifying trade – expanding the variety of goods and services available for trade.

Specifically, CARIFTA was intended to encourage balanced development of the Region by: increasing trade – buying and selling more goods among the Member States. diversifying trade – expanding the variety of goods and services available for trade.

CARICOM’s main purposes are to promote economic integration and cooperation among its members, to ensure that the benefits of integration are equitably shared, and to coordinate foreign policy. CCJ serves as the final court of appeal for CARICOM members and also handles regional trade disputes.

The first attempt at regional integration in the Commonwealth Caribbean was through the formation of the West Indies Federation on January 3, 1958.

The Caribbean economies have long recognized the value of working together. Improving regional integration—for instance, through more intraregional trade and policy coordination—can help the region’s small-size economies build greater resilience and scale, as well as enhance bargaining power on the global stage.

Specialists in this area define seven stages of economic integration: a preferential trading area, a free trade area, a customs union, a common market, an economic union, an economic and monetary union, and complete economic integration.

FACTORS THAT HINDER REGIONAL INTEGRATION

• Reduction in unemployment and underemployment.
• Better response to economic implications of globalisation and trade liberalisation.
• Improvement in the quality of life.
• Reduction in the inequality of wealth distribution.
• Free movement of goods, labour and capital.
• Increased market size.

What are the pros and cons of Regional integration? Benefits: Creation of trade and more jobs. Encourages a greater consensus, and allows for political cooperation. Cons: Lowers sovereignty, shift of employment, inefficient trade diversion from productive exporters to less capable exporters.

The Caribbean Community stands on four pillars: economic integration; human and social development (formerly functional cooperation), foreign policy coordination and security.

Regional integration is the process by which two or more nation-states agree to co-operate and work closely together to achieve peace, stability and wealth. Regional Integration in the Caribbean is mainly through the Caribbean Community, or CARICOM.

Regional integration allows countries to:

• Improve market efficiency;
• Share the costs of public goods or large infrastructure projects;
• Decide policy cooperatively and have an anchor to reform;
• Have a building block for global integration;
• Reap other non-economic benefits, such as peace and security.

Regional economic integration occurs when countries come together to form free trade areas or customs unions, offering members preferential trade access to each others’ markets.

One of the persistent problems facing integration, however, is the pronounced differences in levels of development in economic and political structures of the countries in the region and the inability of integration mechanisms to satisfy the needs at both ends of the scale.

An obvious challenge resulting from the small size of the Caribbean countries is the lack of economies of scale for the public sector. As a result, public sector wages and salaries usually take up a large share of public expenditures.

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The CARICOM Single Market and Economy (CSME) is an arrangement among the CARICOM Member States for the creation of a single enlarged economic space through the removal of restrictions resulting in the free movement of goods, services, persons, capital and technology and it confers the right of CARICOM Nationals to …

The main objectives of the CSME are: full use of labour; full exploitation of the other factors of production; competitive production leading to greater variety; quality and quantity of goods and services, thereby providing greater capacity to trade with other countries.

The implementation of the CSME has been a top priority for Trinidad and Tobago and to date the Single Market component has been implemented in some twelve (12) CARICOM Member States including: Antigua and Barbuda, Barbados, Belize, Dominica, Grenada, Guyana, Jamaica, St. Kitts and Nevis, St. Lucia, St.

The Authority will be headquartered in Jamaica, which is one of among six states (Antigua and Barbuda, Belize, Jamaica, Suriname, Trinidad and Tobago) in which agreement is already in force.

CARICOM Single Market and Economy.

The objectives of CARICOM are:

• To improve standards of living and work.
• The full employment of labour and other factors of production.
• Accelerated, coordinated and sustained economic development and convergence.
• Expansion of trade and economic relations with third States.
• Enhanced levels of international competitiveness.

Caribbean Community

RALPH E. GONSALVES

These member states are Antigua and Barbuda, Bahamas, Barbados, Belize, Dominica, Grenada, Guyana, Haiti, Jamaica, Montserrat (a British overseas territory in the Leeward Islands), Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Suriname, and Trinidad and Tobago.

Conference of Heads of Government

The Principal Organs are: The Conference of Heads of Government (and its Bureau which operates as a sub-committee as required; and a Quasi Cabinet through which individual Heads of Government have Lead Responsibility for specific areas) The Community Council of Ministers (Ministers of CARICOM Affairs in Member States)

The Secretariat of the Caribbean Community is the principal administrative organ for the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) and is headed by the secretary general, who is the chief executive officer of the community.

Institutions

• CARICOM Private Sector Organization (CPSO)
• Caribbean Center for Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency (CCREEE)
• Caribbean Tourism Organisation (CTO)
• CARICOM Development Fund (CDF)
• University of the West Indies (UWI)
• University of Guyana (UG)
• Caribbean Law Institute (CLI)/Caribbean Law Institute Centre (CLIC)