GEORGETOWN, Guyana (CMC):

Haiti has ratified the revised Treaty of Chaguaramas, moving the former French colony one step closer to participating in the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) Single Market and Economy (CSM), CARICOM Secretary General Edwin Carrington said here on Tuesday.

Carrington told reporters that the Haitian Parliament had ratified the revised treaty and it would now require a period of 90 days before it is deposited at the CARICOM Secretariat.

"We obviously have to mount not one but maybe several field missions into Haiti to discuss with them now the various aspects of the implementation process," Carrington said.

Haiti's accession to the CSME was halted due to the political upheaval and the eventual ousting from power of then president, Jean Bertrand Aristide, in late February, 2004.