The Caribbean Community was created in response to set of political, economic and social circumstances facing the English-speaking Caribbean nations. After independence these nations had to decide how they could strengthen their economies, promote regional cooperation, and present a united front to the external world.

Accordingly, the British West Indies Federation, a political union consisting of ten territories was formed under aegis of the British government. The Federation was intended to foster political unity and regional integration, but these aims were dogged by disagreements over such issues as economic policies, resource sharing, and the central authority of the Federation. The Federation collapsed in acrimony in 1962 and a manner that was to have and continues to have a psychological effect on the entire question of Caribbean integration.

The integrity of the process was rescued by Dr Eric Williams, the THEN Prime Minister of Trinidad and Tobago, whom there has been no greater servant of Caribbean unity. He organised a series of conferences of the Leaders of the Commonwealth Caribbean countries from 1962 to 1965 until the Prime Ministers of Guyana, Barbados, and Antigua and Barbuda took the important step of signing the Dickenson Bay Agreement which led to the Caribbean Free Trade Area ( CARIFTA). The principal aim of this organisation was to encourage free trade and economic cooperation. But the main leaders ( Guyana, Trinidad and Tobago, Barbados and Jamaica) of the integration movement of the region recognised that free trade and economic cooperation were not a sufficient condition for survival. On July 4th 1973, therefore, they signed the Treaty of Chaguaramas inaugurating an entity which was expanded to include such areas as health, education, foreign policy coordination, and collective security.

Facing such significant issues as market size, dependence on imported goods, vulnerability to natural disasters, the integration was seen as means to pool resources strengthen bargaining power and promote the ethic of a shared approach to critical issues. Since its formation CARICOM has grown to include fifteen full members and five associate members. It has also worked for deeper integration through the creation of Single Market and Economy ( CSME) which aims to allow the free movement of goods and services, labour and capital across member states.

By identifying, locating and presenting in one volume a variety of historical documents inspired by the political directorate of the Caribbean Community from its birth to the present time, The CARICOM System: Basic Instruments records the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 Peoples 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 (Ocean 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, Front telecommunications, food and nutrition, animal health, climate change, standards and quality and so on.

At the centre of the system is the Caribbean Community which is being transformed by the Revised Treaty of Chaguaramas from a trading regime to a single market and economy in which factors move freely as a basis for internationally competitive production of goods and provision of services. This transformation comes largely as a response to galloping liberalisation and globalisation in the world economy but is still in an early stage of development. Operationalising the CARICOM Single Market and Economy (CSME) calls for the establishment of various enabling institutions among which is the Caribbean Court of Justice, which is encountering serious opposition from some sections of the regional legal fraternity, particularly the private Bar in Jamaica. Given the critical importance of this institution to the successful operation of the CSME, it is necessary to await developments in this area before venturing an evaluation of the prospects for success of the development paradigm being introduced by the Revised Treaty of Chaguaramas. It may be instructive to note however, that participation in the regime of the Caribbean Court of Justice in its original jurisdiction is a sine qua non for participating in the CARICOM Single Market and Economy.

Given the date of conclusion of many of the regimes included in this compendium, it is conceivable that some instruments have undergone minor amendments which might not have been incorporated in the texts presented here. Unfortunately, time militated against their incorporation. Furthermore, one or two regimes are either dysfunctional or in an advanced state of dissolution; nevertheless, their historical significance was perceived as justifying their inclusion. Cases in point are the Caribbean Food Corporation, the West Indies Shipping Corporation and the Caribbean Enterprise Regime