Trinidad and Tobago to join OECS
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| Published on Monday, August 18, 2008 |
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By Oscar Ramjeet
Caribbean Net News Special Correspondent
Email: oscar@caribbeannetnews.com
PORT OF SPAIN, Trinidad: The twin island Republic of Trinidad and Tobago is to join the nine-member Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States (OECS) within the next three years.
This was one of the decisions taken when Manning met with three of his counterparts from Grenada, St Lucia and St Vincent and the Grenadines.
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| Prime Minister of Trinidad and Tobago, Patrick Manning. AFP PHOTO |
The Trinidad Express reported that Manning said, "It is our intention to go to the economic union by 2011 with the OECS countries and political union by 2013. The modalities of that have not been worked out."
Manning and the OECS leaders, Tillman Thomas of Grenada; Ralph Gonsalves of St Vincent and the Grenadines; and Stevenson King of St Lucia, signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with regard to the proposed political and economic union.
A report on what form the union would take will be sent to the leaders by year-end and, according to Manning, until the report is received, it would be premature to be talking about the exact date it will take effect.
Manning made it clear that no constitutional changes would be required for his country to join the proposed union, since there is no need for a special majority vote of the Government and Opposition members in the Parliament.
He said that it could be passed by a simple majority in Parliament. He added that Cabinet agreed that Trinidad and Tobago should join the OECS efforts to form an economic union.
According to Manning, the OECS agreed to draft an economic union treaty, with a deadline of 2009 and provisions for a political union "later on", as it was convinced that the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) would not meet the 2015 single economy deadline.
The meeting of the four prime ministers was also attended by CARICOM Secretary General Edwin Carrington and OECS Director General Len Ishmael, with Barbados and Guyana’s Foreign Affairs Ministers as observers. | | | | Reads : 498 |
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