The Caribbean Community: Establishment and Cooperation

The Caribbean Community, abbreviated CARICOM, grew from existing regional cooperation. In October 1972, the heads of government of Commonwealth Caribbean countries met at Chaguaramas in Trinidad and Tobago under Prime Minister Eric Williams's chairmanship. They decided to deepen cooperation within the Caribbean Free Trade Association and agreed in principle to establish a community.

This step concerned more than reducing tariffs on goods. The meeting brought a common market, foreign-policy coordination and cooperation in fields such as education and health into one framework, commissioning a committee of attorneys-general to examine legal issues and prepare a treaty. A common external tariff, industrial location and assistance for less-developed territories also entered the preparatory agenda.

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The Georgetown meeting in April 1973 further agreed on steps to establish the Community. On 4 July, Errol Barrow of Barbados, Forbes Burnham of Guyana, Michael Manley of Jamaica and Eric Williams of Trinidad and Tobago signed the founding treaty at Chaguaramas on behalf of their four countries.

Signature did not mean entry into force that day. The countries ratified under their constitutional procedures and completed deposit of their ratifications by the end of July, after which the treaty entered into force for the four on 1 August. Belize, Dominica, Grenada, Montserrat, Saint Lucia and Saint Vincent were among those joining in 1974. Expansion from the four-country start to additional territories was a legal process accomplished in stages.

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The original treaty established the Conference of Heads of Government and the Common Market Council as the principal organs. The Conference determined Community policy and could issue directions to the Council and specialized institutions. The Common Market Council comprised ministers designated by each country and handled market operation and economic cooperation.

Each member had one vote in the Conference. The treaty made unanimity the decision-making principle, while providing that abstentions did not prevent a decision where a specified threshold was met. Decisions bound the members to which they were directed, unlike recommendations. Measures also had to be implemented in conjunction with national constitutional procedures, so regional decision-making and domestic implementation were separate stages.

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The Community inherited the Commonwealth Caribbean Regional Secretariat and located its headquarters in Georgetown, Guyana. The Secretary-General and staff arranged meetings, followed up decisions, organized regional studies and supplied services to members on request. The Secretary-General had to submit an annual work report to the Conference. This gave multinational discussions continuing administrative support.

The treaty vested final authority over Community expenditure and financial matters in the Conference, without fixing the first year's total budget in the main text. The Caribbean Development Bank, Caribbean Investment Corporation, University of the West Indies and others were listed as associate institutions, each with its own functions. Investment in development projects must be distinguished from Secretariat administration; investment funds across the whole region cannot be treated as the Community organs' annual budget.

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The treaty annex generally prohibited members from imposing import duties on goods satisfying common-market rules of origin, while retaining listed exceptions and special arrangements for weaker economies. For goods originating outside the region, protection was coordinated through a common external tariff and transitional plans. The arrangement linked internal regional trade with external-trade rules.

The name “common market” did not mean that all factors of production immediately moved freely. Article 38 of the 1973 annex explicitly preserved members' control over entry of persons and did not require a right to free movement. The founding arrangements must be read through their contemporary provisions, rather than projecting later goals of deeper integration backward as facts already achieved at creation.

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On the eve of establishment, the Georgetown meeting had already approved a budget for a region-wide manpower survey. A technical committee was to assess needs at professional, administrative, managerial and other levels, informing expansion of universities and other postsecondary education. Governments also discussed joint participation in managing the University of the West Indies' Institute of International Relations, showing that educational cooperation involved surveys, budgets and institutional governance.

The meeting also agreed on regular exchanges of price information for imported goods affecting the cost of living and considered the possibility of joint bulk purchasing. Search-and-rescue planning and training for banking personnel were referred to later meetings and relevant institutions. These records demonstrate a concrete work agenda at the Community's outset, but plans and authorizations in a communiqué are not themselves evidence that every project was completed.

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In January 1974, the four founding members held a special summit in Barbados, attended by Secretary-General William Demas. Faced with the energy crisis and balance-of-payments pressures, they asked central-bank heads to study regional monetary and payments cooperation and urged agriculture ministers to review an emergency agricultural programme prepared by the Secretariat with regional technical personnel.

The heads also accepted expert recommendations to restructure the agricultural research center at the University of the West Indies' St Augustine campus and pledged financial support. A practical chain of cooperation is visible here: technical personnel produced studies, the Secretariat prepared proposals, ministers reviewed them, and heads of government made political and funding commitments. The Community's early role lay in organizing this sustained joint work among states.

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