1. Timeline of Events
  2. What is Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ)? 2m
  3. What is Caricom Single Market (CSM)? 2m
  4. Member states of CARICOM
  5. Functions/ goals / aims of CARICOM
  6. Organization structure of CARICOM
  7. Limitation / Problem areas in CARICOM
  8. Write a note on India and CARICOM
  9. What’re the areas of cooperation between India and CARICOM?
Timeline of Events
1968. Caribbean Free Trade Association (CARIFTA) comes into existence. It dealt with Trade only.
1973
  • Members of CARIFTA signed a Treaty in Trinidad & Tobago, and transformed CARIFTA into Caribbean Community and Commons Market (CARICOM)
2005 Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ) established in London.
2006 Caricom Single Market

What is Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ)? 2m

  • It is located in London and serves as the final court of appeal for CARICOM members and also handles regional trade disputes.

What is Caricom Single Market (CSM)? 2m

  • It removed barriers to goods, services, trade, and several categories of labour in all CARICOM states except The Bahamas and Haiti.

Member states of CARICOM
I don’t expect you to mug up all names, just try to remember a few names for GK

CARICOM Nations map

Full Members (15) Associate Members Observers
  1. Antigua and Barbuda
  2. Bahamas
  3. Barbados
  4. Belize
  5. Dominica
  6. Grenada
  7. Guyana
  8. Haiti
  9. Jamaica
  10. Montserrat
  11. Saint Kitts and Nevis
  12. Saint Lucia
  13. Saint Vincent and the Grenadines
  14. Suriname
  15. Trinidad and Tobago.
  1. Anguilla
  2. Bermuda
  3. British Virgin Islands
  4. Cayman Islands
  5. Turks and Caicos Islands
  1. Aruba
  2. Colombia
  3. Dominican Republic
  4. Mexico
  5. Puerto Rico
  6. Venezuela

In your school atlas, Locate the places highlighted in bold.

Note:

  1. Bahamas and Haiti belong to the Caribbean community but not the Common Market.
  2. Chairmanship of the Community is rotated every six months among the member countries Heads.

Functions/ goals / aims of CARICOM

  1. CARICOM encourages economic cooperation among member nations through their participation in the Common Market.
  2. CARICOM concerns itself with trade and industrial policy, technical and financial assistance programs for its less developed member nations,
  3. foreign policy negotiations with nations and trading blocs outside the region. Member nations have experienced only limited success in these policy areas, partly because CARICOM economies have traditionally used trade barriers to protect internal markets.
  4. reduction of tariffs on nonagricultural products,
  5. To ensure that the benefits of integration are equitably shared, and to coordinate foreign policy.
  6. To benefit the people of the region by providing more and better opportunities to produce and sell goods and services and to attract investment.
  7. To improve standards of living and work
  8. The full employment of labour and other factors of production
  9. Accelerated, coordinated and sustained economic development and
  10. Convergence expansion of trade and economic relations with third states
  11. Enhanced levels of international competitiveness
  12. Achievement of a greater measure of economic leverage and effectiveness of member states in dealing with third states,
  13. Synergy between member states for e-commerce, government procurement, trade in goods from free zones, free circulation of goods,
  14. Free movement of persons between member states.
Organization structure of CARICOM
five Councils for Three Committees
  1. Finance and Planning
  2. Foreign and Community Relations
  3. Human and Social Development
  4. Trade and Economic Development
  5. Ministers responsible for National Security & Law Enforcement
  1. Legal Affairs Committee
  2. Budget Committee
  3. Committee of the Central Bank Governors

Limitation / Problem areas in CARICOM

  • While some CARICOM economies have grown in the 1990s, unemployment and foreign debt remain high throughout the region.
  • The global and regional trade agreements, such as the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA),have threatened the preferential access of CARICOM nations to foreign export markets in Europe and North America.
  • CARICOM members mostly small island nations lacking the infrastructure and skilled manpower and hence unable to compete in international trade, when it comes to Export giants such like China.

Write a note on India and CARICOM
First meeting of India-CARICOM Foreign Ministers was held in 2005 at Paramaribo (Suriname) on the sidelines of CARICOM Summit.
What’re the areas of cooperation between India and CARICOM?

  1. India’s membership of the Caribbean Development Bank (through which India would be able to co-finance development and integration projects in the region),
  2. promotion of trade in goods, services and investments
  3. greater Indian participation in Caribbean infrastructure development and regional investment,
  4. Supply of retroviral drugs for fighting HIV/AIDS.
  5. CARICOM has also requested India’s contribution to CARICOM Development Fund (CDF) to fund economic activities with the CARICOM region.
  6. Government of India funded the US$ 1 million for information technology and communication infrastructure.
  7. We provided computer software and community studio at the CARICOM Secretariat.