Member state of the Caribbean Community

A member state of the Caribbean Community is a state that has been specified as a member state within the Treaty of Chaguaramas or any other Caribbean state that is in the opinion of the Conference, able and willing to exercise the rights and assume the obligations of membership in accordance with article 29 of the Treaty of Chaguaramas. Member states are designated as either More economically developed country (MDCs) or Less economically developed countries (LDCs). These designations are not intended to create disparity among member states. The Community was established by mainly English- (and English Creole) speaking Caribbean countries, but has since become a multilingual organisation in practice with the addition of Dutch-speaking Suriname on 4 July 1995 and French and Haitian Creole speaking Haiti on 2 July 2002. As of 4 July 2002 there are fifteen full members of the Caribbean Community, four of which are founding members.

In July 1999, Anguilla once again became involved with CARICOM when it gained associate membership. Before this, Anguilla had briefly been a part of CARICOM (1974–1980) as a constituent of the full member state of Saint Christopher-Nevis-Anguilla.

The Bahamas had begun participating in the regional cooperation and integration movement when it began attending the Heads of Government Conferences of the Commonwealth Caribbean in 1966. This practice continued even after the establishment of CARIFTA, of which The Bahamas was never a member, with The Bahamas being involved in educational cooperation and Committees established to deepen financial cooperation among CARIFTA states and the Bahamas and to transform CARIFTA into the Caribbean Community. In particular, The Bahamas was even included in a Committee of Attorneys-General tasked with examining the legal implications of forming the Caribbean Community and to draw up a draft Treaty for its formation. In April 1973, at the final meeting of the Commonwealth Caribbean Heads of Government before the establishment of the Caribbean Community, the Conference welcomed the upcoming independence of The Bahamas in July 1973 and looked forward to its participation in the Caribbean Community. In late 1974, the Bahamas (as well as Haiti and Suriname) indicated that it would like to join the Community. Bahamian involvement with the Caribbean Community and regional integration continued in the same form after independence and the establishment of CARICOM as had occurred since 1966, with The Bahamas attending the second meeting of the CARICOM Heads of Government Conference in 1975 and being involved in the setting up of a special Inter-Governmental Committee on university education. In fact, the original Treaty of Chaguaramas (In Chapter I, Article 2) provided for The Bahamas to automatically join the Caribbean Community and Common Market upon application, with the Bahamas being listed alongside the actual member states as being a state to which membership of the Community may be open to. The final Conference of the Heads of Government of the Caribbean Community and The Bahamas at which this informal participation by The Bahamas continued was November 1982 Conference in Jamaica. At the next Conference, The Bahamas was formally admitted as a member of the Community.

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