Notes for a Presentation on the Caribbean Community and the Practice of Multilateralism

The Treaty of Chaguaramas establishing the Caribbean Community and Common Market (CARICOM) was signed on July 4, 1973 by the Heads of Government of Barbados, Guyana, Jamaica and Trinidad and Tobago. Subsequently, in 2001, Community members signed the Revised Treaty of Chaguaramas including the CARICOM Single Market and Economy (CSME). The CARICOM Secretariat (www.caricom.org) is located in Georgetown, Guyana. The membership of this regional integration movement comprises the following fifteen (15) states: Antigua and Barbuda, The Bahamas, Barbados, Belize, Dominica, Grenada, Guyana, Haiti, Jamaica, Montserrat, Saint Lucia, St. Kitts and Nevis, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, Suriname and Trinidad and Tobago. There are five (5) associate Members: the British Virgin Islands, the Turks and Caicos Islands Anguilla, the Cayman Islands and Bermuda. The Community works inter alia, to promote economic integration and cooperation among its members, to ensure the equitable sharing of the benefits of integration, to coordinate foreign policy and to create a single economic space through the removal of restrictions resulting in the free movement of goods, services, persons, capital and technology.