Caribbean Free Trade Association (CARIFTA)
What Was the Caribbean Free Trade Association (CARIFTA)?
The Caribbean Free Trade Association (CARIFTA) was a multilateral free-trade area made out of Caribbean nations and conditions that existed from 1965 to 1972. Following the disintegration of the West Indian Federation, a political union in the region, CARIFTA was laid out to fortify and empower economic activity among its members basically by eliminating tariffs and quotas on goods created inside the trade coalition.
CARIFTA was prevailed by the Caribbean Community and Common Market (CARICOM), which was formed in 1973 after the founders had sanctioned the Treaty of Chaguaramas.
Understanding Caribbean Free Trade Association
After the West Indian Federation failed at making a single independent state among the Caribbean islands, numerous legislatures in the region believed that it was critical to keep collaborating with adjoining islands by having some form of economic linkage.
In 1965, a trade coalition known as the Caribbean Free Trade Association (CARIFTA) was formed by four islands to proceed economic integration. Different islands joined the free-trade area not long after seeing the possible benefits of increased trade with one another. The increase in trade came because of reductions in tariffs on imports coming from different islands participating in the free-trade agreement.
This caused a few issues as numerous Caribbean islands were vigorously dependent on revenue created from tariffs, and thus legislatures in the region were not too enthused about eliminating nor lessening their trade barriers. Jamaica guaranteed that it was disproportionally addressed in the federation and pulled out. Different countries followed after accordingly.
This at last brought about CARIFTA being fleeting. Be that as it may, it gave a foundation to the formation of the Caribbean Community and Common Market (CARICOM), which actually exists today.
The Caribbean Community and Common Market (CARICOM)
The Caribbean Community and Common Market comprises today of twenty countries. Fifteen of these countries are full-fledged members of the community while five of them just hold associate member status. The fifteen full-time countries are as per the following:
- Antigua and Barbuda
- Bahamas
- Barbados
- Belize
- Dominica
- Grenada
- Guyana
- Haiti
- Jamaica
- Montserrat
- Saint Lucia
- Saint Kits and Nevis
- Saint Vincent and the Grenadines
- Suriname
- Trinidad and Tobago
The associate members are Anguilla, Bermuda, British Virgin Islands, Cayman Islands, and Turks and Caicos. Associate members hold parttime privileges.
These nations have aggregately consolidated to grow their trade and economic relations internationally, remembering further development of activity for international markets.
All the Caribbean Single Market and Economy (CSME) is an initiative currently being investigated by the Caribbean Community and Common Market that would coordinate its member-states into a single economic unit. This would bring about the elimination of all tax barriers inside the region.
Features
- The Caribbean Community and Common Market (CARICOM) was laid out to replace the Caribbean Free Trade Area which had failed in its mission to foster policies in the region relating to labor and capital.
- One of CARICOM's current objectives is to lay out a free-trade zone and single market for increased trade and economic growth in the region.
- The Caribbean Free Trade Association (CARIFTA) was a regional free-trade arena in place between 1965 to 1972.
