PRIME MINISTER of Dominica Roosevelt Skerritt on Monday reassured CARICOM that the Organisation of the Eastern Caribbean States (OECS) are supporting the CARICOM Single Market and Economy (CSME).
Mr. Skerritt was speaking to staff of the CARICOM secretariat in Georgetown, Guyana.
He denounced suggestions that the OECS, now celebrating its 25th anniversary, was operating independent of the Caribbean community.
OECS members, Antigua and Barbuda, Dominica, Grenada, St. Kitts and Nevis, St. Lucia, and St. Vincent and the Grenadines are due to sign on to the single market by June 30.
This comes six months after Barbados, Belize, Guyana, Jamaica, Suriname and Trinidad and Tobago signed on to formalise their participation at a formal ceremony in Jamaica on January 30.
He said the formation of the economic union among the OECS member states was dictated by the effort to increase bargaining power for the development for the sub-region's small population of half a million.
Referring to OECS as a 'sub-set of CARICOM', Mr. Skerritt said that moves by the grouping's member states to enact single market legislation proved its support for the integration process.
Admitting that there were challenges confronting OECS in the run-up to their participation in the Single Market, he said OECS Heads of Government were seeking a common position to enter as a bloc.
Mr. Skerritt holds responsibility for Free Movement under the CARICOM Heads of Government Quasi Cabinet arrangements.
