Health Issues in the CARICOM Single Market and Economy

• Author: Pansy Hamilton
• Pages: 346-360

346 CSME: Genesis and Prognosis

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24 Pansy I. Hamilton

HEALTH ISSUES AND THE CARICOM

SINGLE MARKET AND ECONOMY

Introduction

In the face of an increasingly globalised economy the Caribbean has

been pushed to implement the vision of a region without barriers to develop

instruments and institutions to promote economic development. This vision

has been pursued through CARICOM. The CARICOM Community

(CARICOM) was established in 1973 by the Treaty of Chaguaramas. This

was done in keeping with the decision at the Seventh Heads of Government

Conference to transform its forerunner, the Caribbean Free Trade Association

(CARIFTA) into a Common Market.

This new institution under Article 6 in the revised treaty has as its remit

the facilitation of the economic and social development of member states

and the fostering of Caribbean integration. The principal objectives are to:

strengthen, co-ordinate and regulate economic and trade relations among

member states towards harmonious and balanced development; promote

sustained expansion and continuous integration of economic activities; and

pursue greater achievement of economic independence and effectiveness.1

Both the vision and the remit have been crystallized in the establishment in

2006 of the CARICOM Single Market and Economy (CSME) with the

ratification of the Single Market component.

CARICOM comprises 20 member states. Fifteen are full members, only

one of which, the Bahamas, is not a member of the Common Market; and

five are associate members (Table 1). Among the 15 full members are 11

island states, 3 mainland states (namely Belize, Guyana and Suriname) and

Haiti which shares the island of Hispaniola with the Dominican Republic.