Welcome

Welcome to the Caribbean Community chapter of the World Economics Association.

The Caribbean Community (CARICOM) is an organisation of 15Caribbean nations and dependencies. 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.^[2] Its major activities involve coordinating economic policies and development planning; devising and instituting special projects for the less-developed countries within its jurisdiction; operating as a regional single market for many of its members (Caricom Single Market); and handling regional trade disputes.

The secretariat headquarters is based in Georgetown, Guyana.

Since the establishment of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) by the mainly English-speaking parts of the Caribbean region, CARICOM has become multilingual in practice with the addition of Dutch speaking–Suriname on 4 July 1995 and French– (and Haitian Kreyòl-) speaking Haition 2 July 2002. Furthermore, it was suggested that Spanish should also become a working language.^[3] In July 2012, CARICOM announced that they were considering making French and Dutch official languages.^[4]

In 2001, the heads of government signed a Revised Treaty of Chaguaramas thus clearing the way for the transformation of the idea for aCommon Market aspect of CARICOM into instead a Caribbean (CARICOM) Single Market and Economy. Part of the revised treaty among member states includes the establishment and implementation of theCaribbean Court of Justice. Since 2013 the CARICOM-bloc along with the Dominican Republic is tied to the European Commission via an Economic Partnership Agreements known as CARIFORUM signed in 2008.^[5] The treaty grants all members of the European Union and CARIFORUM equal rights in terms of trade and investment. Within the agreement under Article 234, the European Court of Justice also carries dispute resolution mechanisms between CARIFORUM and the European Union states.