TCI seeks full CARICOM membership

BY OLIVIA ROSE

THE Turks and Caicos Islands Government has announced its aspiration to become a full member of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM).

His Excellency Governor Nigel Dakin said a visit by a TCI delegation to the Bahamas in December 2022, “sought to explore areas to deepen and strengthen the territory’s friendship with the Bahamas”, which has been a member of the Caribbean Community since July 4, 1983.

“TCI advised of its intention to seek full membership of CARICOM - for which a letter of entrustment that allows for this negotiation has been provided by the United Kingdom”, Dakin said in a statement to the media on Tuesday, January 24, 2023.

The Turks and Caicos became Associated Members of CARICOM in July 1991 along with the British Virgin Islands.

As a full member of CARICOM, the TCI will benefit from CARICOM’s free trade market, which was established between member countries, to cease competition with one another for market shares on certain products and instead allow them to focus on the products that they are most qualified to produce or resources that they alone possess.

These markets have very little if any tariffs on imports and exports and no price controls enacted.

The territory will also be a part of the Caribbean Single Market and Economy (CSME), an initiative of (CARICOM) that seeks to integrate member-states into a single economic unit to allow free movement of capital, services, technology and skilled professionals within the region.

CARICOM is the oldest surviving integration movement in the developing world.

Twenty countries make up the Caribbean Community (CARICOM), fifteen are full members and five are Associate Members.

The geographical boundaries of the Community stretch from The Bahama Islands in the north, southward to Guyana and Suriname – both on the north coast of the South American mainland.

According to CARICOM’s website, countries within the group share many similarities and challenges.

All CARICOM countries are classified as developing countries and are all relatively small in terms of population and size, and diverse in terms of geography, population, culture, and levels of economic and social development.

On the one hand, they are all in proximity to major markets in North and South America, and most countries, have had to make the transition from agriculture or mining to a service-driven economy, especially tourism and financial services.

On the other hand, they have to overcome the challenges of frequent natural disasters, in addition to small size with associated lack of economies of scale and vulnerability to external shocks.

All members subscribe to the Community’s principles outlined in the Revised Treaty of Chaguaramas (2002).

Leaders of member states shape the Community’s policies and priorities.