Caribbean Community

Caribbean Community (CARICOM) was established in 1973 to govern the relatively small states that make up the Caribbean region. Its mandate is to facilitate enhanced coordination of member states' policies in relation to issues of regional importance. The CARI-COM Treaty has as its main goals the improvement of living standards, economic development, full employment, enhancement of international competitiveness, and effective foreign relations.

CARICOM is an intergovernmental, regional organization; its members are states. Its membership has increased over the years from four states in 1973 to fifteen in 2005. Members include Haiti, Jamaica, Trinidad and Tobago, Grenada, Antigua and Barbuda, the Bahamas, Barbados, Belize, Dominica, Guyanan, Montserrat, Saint Lucia, St. Kitts and Nevis, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, and Surinam. CARI-COM also has five associate members: Bermuda, the Cayman Islands, Anguilla, British Virgin Islands, and the Turks and Caicos Islands.

CARICOM is a suprastate initiative in that it comprises regional bodies. Its principal administrative organ is the CARICOM Secretariat, which is headed [Page 72]by a secretary general who is the chief executive officer of the Community. The Secretariat comprises offices such as the general counsel and directorates such as foreign and community relations. CARICOM also has fifteen institutions. A minister of government represents each member state at each institution. Institutions include the Caribbean Agriculture Research and Development Institute (CARDI), the Caribbean Community Climate Change Centre (CCCCC), and the Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ). These bodies act in partnership with the Secretariat and civil society groups to formulate policies, promote the implementation of decisions, collect and store information, and provide technical assistance where needed. Thus, member states have transferred certain functions upward to the regional institutions and have also devolved certain decision-making input outward to national or international civil society groups, such as nongovernmental organizations (NGOs).

A notable regional initiative set up under the auspices of CARICOM in 1989 was the CARICOM Single Market and Economy (CSME). In response to the pressures of globalization, the CSME committed states to work toward a single market and economy where factors such as labor and capital move freely among participating member states as a basis for internationally competitive production of goods and provision of services. This shifts Caribbean states' traditional control over intraregional trade to market forces, although CARICOM has some way to go before the market is entirely liberalized.

CARICOM consistently addresses diverse matters ranging from the environment and health to economic performance and investment; however, development and foreign relations are thought of as its two most pressing, interrelated challenges. First, Caribbean states are classed as developing countries given the size of their economies and their poverty levels; in particular, since the 1990s, Caribbean economic growth rates have decreased and even shown negative real growth in some states. Therefore, CARICOM's main aim is to facilitate sustained economic development; it is argued that regional agreements, such as free trade zones or regional HIV/AIDS programs, will further economic development. However, Caribbean states often disagree over whether development should be state-led or predominantly driven by market principles.

Second, CARICOM seeks to amplify the Caribbean's influence in global governance. Each Caribbean state has a small economy in comparison to the industrialized countries, such as the United States, Japan, and the United Kingdom; CARICOM was designed to overcome this imbalance by combining state forces and thus creating a more powerful regional bloc. For instance, Caribbean states are concerned about the erosion of developing-country trade preferences, such as the European Union's banana quotas. The states have taken such concerns to the World Trade Organization under the auspices of CARICOM. However, some critics point to the fact that CARICOM needs to maintain a higher level of political unity on all issues if it is to establish an effective negotiating position. CARICOM is thus faced with the challenge of attaining and maintaining regional consensus among states that often hold diverging opinions.

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