Caribbean Community and Common Market

Organization for economic and foreign policy coordination in the Caribbean region, established in 1973 by the Treaty of Chaguaramas (which has since been revised) to replace the former Caribbean Free Trade Association. Its members are Antigua and Barbuda, Bahamas, Barbados, Belize, Dominica, Grenada, Guyana, Haiti, Jamaica, Montserrat, St Kitts and Nevis, St Lucia, St Vincent and the Grenadines, Suriname, and Trinidad and Tobago. The Bahamas is a member of the Community but not of the CARICOM Single Market and Economy (CSME). Anguilla, Bermuda, the British Virgin Islands, the Cayman Islands, and the Turks and Caicos Islands are associate members. CARICOM headquarters are in Georgetown, Guyana. The Conference of Heads of Government is the principal organ of the Community, and Edwin Carrington (Trinidad and Tobago) is the secretary general from 1992.

In April 2005 the Caribbean Court of Justice was inaugurated in Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago, to act as the regional judicial tribunal and to uphold the rights of citizens during the operation of the CSME. The Court replaced the UK Judicial Committee of the Privy Council as the final court of appeal for CARICOM members.