Guyana seeks to revise Treaty of Chaguaramus

Mar 10, 2012 News

…even as Heads deliberate CARICOM’s future

By Gary Eleazar in Suriname

As CARICOM Heads of Government and their delegations deliberate on the future of the regional integration movement, Guyana is looking to change the Union from its very core.
Guyana has directed the attention of the legal arm of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) to revising the Treaty of Chaguaramus which formed the alliance of nations in 1973.
According to Guyana’s Minister of Legal Affairs and Attorney General Anil Nandlall, the country is exploring a way to amend the level of unanimity required to act on necessary decisions taken over time and have them properly implemented.
Nandlall told this publication that the issue of how the Treaty is to be amended was sent to the Legal Affairs Committee of CARICOM to offer opinion on whether the existing mechanism should be retained or changed.
He explained that in its current state, the amendment mechanism of the Treaty of Chaguaramus requires unanimity before an article or clause of the Treaty could be amended.
As a result of the requirement of unanimity, Nandlall said that CARICOM has found that it takes an extremely long time to get things done.
Nandlall suggests that rather than having unanimity among Heads and Leaders, maybe there should be a simple majority scenario.
He said that in such a stage, Heads could agree to a policy and move to implement it while other sister CARICOM countries not involved in the original decision could always come on board at a subsequent time.
The Legal Affairs Committee comprises all of the Attorneys General of CARICOM. Nandlall recently chaired a forum to discuss the issue.
The Guyana Government’s chief legal officer said he was not in a position to expand further on what changes Guyana wants to see in the Treaty. He explained that he was called in to address the amendment mechanism of the Treaty of Chaguaramus.
The Treaty of Chaguaramas which established the Caribbean Community and Caribbean Common Market was signed by Barbados, Guyana, Jamaica and Trinidad and Tobago on July 4, 1973, in Chaguaramas, Trinidad and Tobago and came into effect on 1 August 1973.
The Caribbean Community and the Caribbean Common Market replaced the Caribbean Free Trade Association which ceased to exist on May 1, 1974.
The Treaty of Chaguaramas was juridical hybrid consisting of the Caribbean Community as a separate legal entity from the Common Market which had its own discrete legal personality.
Indeed, the legal separation of these two institutions was emphasised by the elaboration of two discrete legal instruments: the Treaty establishing the Caribbean Community and the Agreement establishing the Common Market (which was later annexed to the Treaty and designated the Common Market Annex).
This institutional arrangement facilitated States joining the Community without being parties to the Common Market regime.
In addition to economic issues, the Community instrument addressed issues of foreign policy coordination and functional cooperation.
Issues of economic integration, particularly those related to trade arrangements, were addressed in the Common Market Annex.
Because of this juridically separate identity of the regional common market, it was possible for the Bahamas to become a member of the Community in 1983 without joining the Common Market.
In 1989, when the Heads of Government made the decision to transform the Common Market into a single market and economy in which factors move freely as a basis for internationally competitive production of goods and provision of services, it was also decided that for the transformation to take place, the Treaty would have to be revised.
In 1992, following the adoption of the report of the West Indian Commission, an Inter-governmental Task Force was established, to work on the revision of the Treaty.
Between 1993 and 2000, the Inter-Governmental Task Force (IGTF) which was composed of representatives of all Member States, produced nine Protocols, for the purpose of amending the Treaty.
These nine Protocols were later combined to create a new version of the Treaty, called formally, The Revised Treaty of Chaguaramas establishing the Caribbean Community, including the CARICOM Single Market and Economy.
Allowances have been made for the subsequent inclusion in the Revised Treaty, by way of additional Protocols, new issues such as e-commerce, government procurement, trade in goods from free zones, free circulation of goods and the rights contingent on the free movement of persons.