Preface

• 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: 7-8

PREFACE

By identifying, locating and presenting in one volume a variety of historical documents

inspired by the political directorate of the Caribbean Community from its birth to the

present time, The CARICOM System: Basic Instruments records the institutional

development of one of the most enduring economic integration systems in the

international community by having the documents speak for themselves. The utterances

gleaned from these instruments are both eloquent and instructive. Apart from the

University of the West Indies, the instruments set out in this volume postdate the demise

of the West Indian Federation in 1962. In fact, the period following the collapse of the

Federation registered significant advances in regional cooperation, both in terms of

functional cooperation and economic integration. Indeed, when Dr. Williams finally

broke his silence and announced the withdrawal of Trinidad and Tobago from the

Federation by sponsoring a resolution in the People’s National Movement (PNM) to

‘reject unequivocally any participation in a federation of the Eastern Caribbean’, the

door was kept open for ‘the future establishment of a Common Economic Community

embracing the entire Caribbean Area’ as stated by Sir Fred Phillips in Freedom in the

Caribbean (Oceana Publications Inc.1977). So it was that the Dickenson Bay Agreement

was concluded a mere three years later and CARIFTA was established in 1968.

The collapse of the federal experiment in 1962 did not moderate or stymie efforts

at regional integration. Indeed, the decade following the events of 1962 saw the

establishment of CARIFTA, the Caribbean Development Bank, the West Indies Shipping

Corporation, the Caribbean Examinations Council, and the Council of Legal Education.

With the exception of the West Indies Shipping Corporation which went into liquidation

and CARIFTA, which was succeeded by the Caribbean Community and Common

Market, these institutions have survived to the present and have grown in strength and

stature. The signing of the Treaty of Chaguaramas in 1973 by Barbados, Guyana, Jamaica

and Trinidad and Tobago must be considered one of the defining moments in the historical

and institutional development of the Caribbean Community. Given the acrimony

characterising the relations between Jamaica and Trinidad and Tobago in the period

1958-68 it was not a plausible expectation that representatives of the two governments

could have deliberated and reached an accommodation in 1973. In this connection,

Trinidad and Tobago must be seen to have made a herculean effort at accommodation

given the known preference of the Williams’ administration for a customs union in the

Commonwealth Caribbean and for a strong central administration in any integration

arrangement. Although a hesitant first step, the Treaty of Chaguaramas provided the

basis for wide-ranging functional cooperation, important initiatives in foreign policy

coordination and invaluable experience in the operation of a free trade regime, however

constrained by impediments to the free movement of goods and factors of production.

From these early beginnings the CARICOM System has grown and flourished

comprehending at present a range of regimes in the areas of governance, social security,

export development, agricultural research and development, the environment,

meteorology, disaster preparedness, administration, culture, fisheries, tourism,