Caribbean Community and Common Market

• Author: Duke Pollard
• Profession: Sitting senior judge of the Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ), the highest appellate municipal court of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM)
• Pages: 184-223

184 THE CARICOM SYSTEM

10

THE CARIBBEAN COMMUNITY

AND COMMON MARKET

The signing of the Treaty of Chaguaramas Establishing the Caribbean Community and

Common Market on July 4, 1973, was a defining moment in the history of the

Commonwealth Caribbean. Given the acrimony that characterised events involving

the collapse of the political integration initiative, it was generally assumed that nothing

short of a miracle would bring the leaders together again in any endeavour that was not

palpably non-political.

Yet the Treaty of Chaguaramas went beyond the common determination of political

leaders to integrate their economies. Economic integration issues, particularly as they

related to trade arrangements were being addressed in a separate instrument known as

the Common Market Annex in respect of which the Common Market Council was the

principal organ. The Community was set out in the principal agreement and the supreme

organ in the institutional arrangements being devised was the Conference of Heads of

Government which normally convened to deliberate on a range of issues which were

not necessarily restricted to economic issues. Furthermore, the Community instrument

addressed issues of foreign policy coordination which had a political dimension and

functional cooperation issues which traversed areas well beyond economic

considerations. That much had changed in the intervening period was evident in the

fall of the Jagan administration following the defeat of the Kaldor budget, political

instability and the introduction of proportional representation in the defeat of the

Barbados Labour Party and the rise of Barrow’s Democratic Labour Party to power and

in the defeat of the Jamaica Labour Party and the rise of the People’s National Party to

power under Michael Manley. Eric Williams in Trinidad and Tobago remained constant.

But the political directorate had been so transformed in other ways that new

initiatives in political convergence were not inconceivable. So the Treaty of Chaguaramas

became a reality.

By way of a caveat, however it must be submitted at the outset that the transition

from CARIFTA to Caribbean Community and Common Market was not as far-reaching

as it might have first appeared. The Agreement concluded by Barrow, Burnham and

Bird at Dickenson Bay in 1965 had undergone significant changes with the Supplemental

Agreement signed in 1968 to facilitate the accession of the OECS countries to the

regime. One such change was to be found in Article 39 which allowed the LDCs to

derogate from their Treaty obligations in order to promote industrialisation in the less

developed Member States. This principle of special and differential treatment for weaker

The Caribbean Community and Common Market 185

sovereignties, vigorously espoused by Caribbean Countries both in the context of the

WTO, ACP-EU and FTAA negotiations, has been appropriately addressed in chapter

seven of the Treaty of Chaguaramas. Another significant modification to the CARIFTA

Agreement on being incorporated in the Common Market Annex relates to area tariff

origin, a concept which was apparently culled from the EFTA Agreement but which

disappeared from the corresponding provisions of the Common Market Annex and has

been the cause of much controversy in interpreting relevant provisions of Protocol IV

(Trade Policy) amending the Treaty of Chaguaramas and Article 84 of the Revised

Treaty of Chaguaramas.

The original Treaty of Chaguaramas established two discrete juridical entities

possessing separate legal personalities in the national jurisdictions of Member States

implementing the constituent instruments of the Community and Common Market.

The objectives of the Caribbean Community encompass three areas as follows: economic

integration of member States aimed at strengthening the coordination and regulation of

their economic and trade relations; sustained expansion and continuing integration of

economic activities and a greater measure of economic independence and effectiveness

of Member States in their interface with other States; secondly, the effective coordination

of national foreign policies, and thirdly, functional cooperation, including the efficient

operation of common services and the promotion of greater understanding among the

peoples of the Community and the advancement of their social, cultural and technological

development. The objectives of the Common Market which are not significantly different

from the economic objectives of the Community, are set out in the Common Market

Annex.

For the achievement of the objectives of the Caribbean Community and Common

Market, the Treaty has established two principal organs - the Conference of Heads of

Government and the Common Market Council and a variety of Ministerial Institutions.

The Conference, as the supreme organ, determines the policy of the Community. Given

the high profile of foreign affairs in the activities of states and the desire to dispel any

doubt about the status of the Community as an association of sovereign states, the

political directorate determined that the Standing Committee of Ministers responsible

for Foreign Affairs will only make recommendations to Member States and even such

recommendations were to be reached by unanimous vote. Similarly, to underscore the

pre-eminence of the Conference and the importance of this body, the Treaty states that

unless otherwise provided for in the Treaty, disputes concerning the interpretation and

application of the Treaty shall be determined by the Conference.

The Community was recognised in Member States as possessing full juridical

authority and Member States agreed to commit or accord to the Community, the most

extensive legal capacity accorded legal persons under their national laws, including the

capacity to acquire and dispose of moveable and immoveable property and to sue and

be sued in its own name. In any legal proceedings involving the Community, the

Secretary General is required to represent the Community. The Community has

concluded a headquarters agreement with the Government of Guyana and has in

collaboration with the Community Secretariat elaborated a Protocol on Privileges and

Immunities.

Membership of the Community is restricted to Commonwealth Caribbean States

and any other state of the Caribbean Region which in the opinion of the Conference is

able and willing to exercise the rights and assume the obligations of membership.

186 THE CARICOM SYSTEM

Pursuant to the relevant provisions of the Treaty, Suriname was admitted to membership

in 1996 and Haiti has also been admitted. The Treaty also provides for associate

membership and to date the British Virgin Islands, the Turk and Caicos Islands Anguilla

and the Cayman Islands are associate members of the Community.

TREATY ESTABLISHING THE CARIBBEAN

COMMUNITY AND COMMON MARKET

PREAMBLE

The Governments of the Contracting States,

Determined to consolidate and strengthen the bonds which have historically existed

among their peoples;

Sharing a common determination to fulfill the hopes and aspirations of their peoples

for full employment and improved standards of work and living;

Conscious that these objectives can most rapidly be attained by the optimum

utilisation of available human and natural resources of the Region by accelerated, co-

ordinated and sustained economic development, particularly through the exercise of

permanent sovereignty over their natural resources; by the efficient operation of common

services and functional co-operation in the social, cultural, educational and technological

fields; and by a common front in relation to the external world;

Convinced of the need to elaborate an effective regime by establishing and utilising

institutions designed to enhance the economic, social and cultural development of their

peoples;

Have agreed as follows:

CHAPTER ONE - PRINCIPLES

Article 1

Establishment of the Caribbean Community

By this Treaty the Contracting Parties establishment among themselves a Caribbean

Community (hereinafter referred to as “the Community”) having the membership, powers

and functions hereinafter specified.

Article 2

Membership

Membership of the Community shall be open to:

(a) (i) Antigua

(ii) Bahamas

(iii) Barbados

(iv) Belize

(v) Dominica