Caribbean Community
Caribbean Community (CARICOM)
Map showing CARICOM members, associates and
observers
Seat of
Secretariat
Georgetown, Guyana
Official
languages
English4
Membership
15 full members1
5 associate members2
7 observers3
Leaders
-
Secretary-
General
Edwin W. Carrington
(since 1992)
-
CARICOM
Heads of
Government
Establishment
-
Treaty of
Chaguaramas
1 August 1973
Website
http://www.caricom.org
Currencies
ISO 4217 codes in brackets:
Bahamian dollar (BSD) • Barbadian dollar (BBD) •
Belize dollar (BZD) • East Caribbean dollar (XCD)5 •
Guyanese dollar (GYD) • Haitian gourde (HTG) •
Jamaican dollar (JMD) • Surinamese dollar (SRD) •
Trinidad and Tobago dollar (TTD)
1
14 independent states, 1 dependent
territory.
2
5 dependent territories.
3
4 independent states, 3 dependent
territories.
4 Dutch, French and Haitian Creole also used
unofficially.
5 Used by OECS members.
The Caribbean Community (CARICOM), is
an organisation of 15 Caribbean nations and
dependencies. CARICOM’s main purposes
are to promote economic integration and co-
operation among its members, to ensure that
the benefits of
integration are equitably
shared, and to coordinate foreign policy.[1]
Its major activities involve coordinating eco-
nomic policies and development planning; de-
vising and instituting special projects for the
less-developed countries within its jurisdic-
tion; operating as a regional single market
for many of its members (Caricom Single
Market); and handling regional trade dis-
putes. The Secretariat headquarters is based-
in Georgetown, Guyana.
Overview
Since the establishment of the Caribbean
Community (CARICOM) by the mainly Eng-
lish speaking parts of the Caribbean region
CARICOM has become unofficially multilin-
gual in practice with the addition of Dutch-
speaking Suriname on 4 July 1995 and Haiti,
where French and Haitian Creole are spoken,
on 2 July 2002.
In 2001, the heads of government signed a
Revised Treaty of Chaguaramas thus clearing
the way for the transformation of the idea for
a Common Market aspect of CAR