PORT-OF-SPAIN, Trinidad: Association of Caribbean States (ACS) ministers, at their 12th Ordinary Meeting of the Ministerial Council, made a formal call for all members and associate members who have not yet done so, to sign or ratify any legal instruments on which they have not yet acted.
In approving the Plan of Work prepared by the Secretariat and endorsed by the Working Group for the Entry Into force of ACS Legal Instruments, the Ministers and officials present at the meeting formally declared 2007 as "The Year for the entry into force of the Main Legal Instruments of the ACS."
Member States and Associate Members are being urged to fulfil their obligations under the instruments as well as under Article XVIII of the Convention Establishing the Association of Caribbean States before December 31, 2007. This Article states that "Member States of the Association shall take all appropriate and pertinent measures to carry out the provisions of this Convention."
Members will have opportunity to sign the legal instruments, which have been placed at the Permanent Representation of Colombia to the United Nations in New York, during the months of April to December of this year, with the expectation that they will proceed to ratify them soon afterwards. Instruments of Ratification or Acceptance will also be received by the Permanent Representation of the Depositary State.
To date, the Agreement for Regional Co-operation in Natural Disasters has been ratified by ten countries, but seven more are needed for it to enter into force.
The Agreement for the Establishment of the Sustainable Tourism Zone of the Caribbean (STZC) is ratified by six countries, while nine ratifications are needed to for its entry into force.
The multilateral Air Transport Agreement has already been ratified by six Member States, but requires three more ratifications to enter into force.
The Protocol to the STZC enters into force with the signatures of fifteen of the States which ratified the Convention.
Finally, the Protocol on Privileges and Immunities was ratified by ten Members and Associate Members. Five more ratifications are required for its entry into force. | 
