Secondly, a much more closely coordinated and economically advanced OECS with substantially increased per capita incomes, removes the stigma of being, so to speak, “poor relations” and provides more economic opportunities for firms and citizens from the MDCs. Already, firms in Barbados and Trinidad and Tobago benefit significantly from doing business in the Currency Union and this will enhance their prospects.
The progress of the OECS should usher in more reciprocal and beneficial commercial relationships between the two polar elements of CARICOM. How would the OECS achieve this new status? By implementing, as a matter of urgency, the Treaty which was ratified on 21st January 2011.