Transcript of the Treaty of Basseterre of 1981

To capture the diplomatic side of Caribbean economic history from the point of view of the governments, official documents describing economic policies, joint strategies, and related decision-making processes in the Caribbean region could be pursued. The virtual document collections of CARICOM (2022a, 2022b, 2022c), OECS (2022), and ACS (2022) constitute an excellent historical archive or repository for this purpose. 

One key event in Caribbean economic diplomacy was the constitution in 1981 of the Organization of Eastern Caribbean States (OECS) among seven countries: Antigua & Barbuda, St. Vincent & the Grenadines, St. Kitts & Nevis, Dominica, St. Lucia, Grenada, and Montserrat. The new entity adopted the common market that had already been taking shape since 1968 among the member countries, in a breakthrough process that predated the common market activated in 1993 by the European Union. A common market is a free trade area with no tariffs for goods and relatively free movement of capital, workers, and services.  

The document transcript here is the treaty that established the organization, the OECS. The virtual source can be found in CARICOM’s website, specifically at https://caricom.org/documents/legaldocuments/9240-treaty-oecs.htm. 

This source is part of the Economic Diplomacy in the Caribbean Since the Second World War teaching module.