BASSETERRE, St. Kitts – DESPITE media reports that the new government of Trinidad and Tobago will not go ahead with the proposed economic union with countries of the Organization of Eastern Caribbean States (OECS), the sub-grouping is prepared to move on without that nation.
Days after the historic June 18 signing of the revised Treaty of Basseterre, establishing a single market for the OECS, news broke that Trinidad and Tobago’s new Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar would not allow her government to join the new regional framework as was expected for 2013.
According to the BBC, Persad-Bissessar said her predecessor Patrick Manning made a “unilateral decision” regarding joining the union and did not take it to Parliament or seek national consensus on the matter.
In response, Chairman of the Joint Committee of the OECS Authority and the Eastern Caribbean Central Bank (ECCB) Monetary Council Hon. Dr. Ralph Gonsalves said the decision for Trinidad and Tobago to join the Union should rightfully be determined by the public policy of the current Trinidadian government.
He added, however, that the OECS will continue its work toward closer integration with or without Trinidad and Tobago as part of the Union.
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