OECS agrees to new treaty to be signed Dec. 29

Leaders of the Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States (OECS) have agreed to sign a new integration treaty on December 29 to replace the original Treaty of Basseterre establishing the sub-regional grouping, which was signed in St Kitts on June 18, 1981.

The new one takes effect in June next year and will be signed in St Kitts, the birthplace of the OECS.

The original group comprised Antigua and Barbuda, Dominica, Grenada, Montserrat, St Kitts and Nevis, St Lucia and St Vincent and the Grenadines. The British Virgin Islands and Anguilla joined in 1984 and 1995 respectively.

The new draft document aims to remove trade barriers between national markets in goods, services, movement of capital and labour forces. The intention is to transform the OECS states into a single financial and economic space.

The treaty lists 11 sectors for joint action, including civil aviation, agriculture, tourism, education, environmental sustainability, marine, disaster response and telecommunications.

Grenada’s Prime Minister Tillman Thomas told reporters a special meeting will be convened ahead of the signing to "consider the treatment of recommendations and the draft Treaty arising from the public consultations" in the all the islands.

Grenada is one of three OECS members that have also agreed to enter into a political and economic union with Trinidad and Tobago.

The memorundum of understanding to establish the union was approved by the OECS last year.

Trinidad and Tobago Prime Minister Patrick Manning plans to complete the economic union with Grenada, St Vincent and St Lucia by 2011 and the political union two years later.

He said it is vital to conclude this arrangement since it would help maintain stability in the region.

A special task force presented its report on the proposed union in May.

Manning said he considers the union a revival of the dream of unity that successive administrations have tried to create since the end of the West Indies federation in the 1960's.

He called the latest steps a "significant" move toward the recreation of one political space "to which we have aspired in the Caribbean for a very long time.”

Trinidad and Tobago Opposition leader Basdeo Panday has a different take on Manning's initiative. He believes contrary to what the prime minister is preaching, his coziness with the three eastern Caribbean states would cause further fragmentation of the wider CARICOM regional grouping.