Oecs economic union treaty pdf

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The OECS Secretariat takes this opportunity to thank Mr Earl Huntley for the time spent on preparing this document and for sharing views and perspectives on this issue.

The first analyses the Treaty of Basseterre explaining the origins, rationale and nature of the Treaty. The second section outlines the implications of an economic union and examines whether the present provisions of the Treaty can form the basis for the establishment of an economic union. The third section makes recommendations on the Treaty arrangements necessary for the establishment of an economic union among OECS Members States, taking into account the Basseterre Treaty.

It also contains a note on h the OECS can effect a harmonized approach to ow international trade issues. Indeed, the Treaty itself was based on a report on joint overseas representation for the islands after independence.

The Treaty of Basseterre therefore places considerable emphasis on the coordination of foreign policy by the member states of the OECS.

In listing the objectives of the organization, the Treaty gives primacy to cooperation in the international relations of its member states. Article 3. Of the 15 fields listed in Article 3. Of course, this takes into account the fact that separate institutional arrangements were already in place for currency and central banking and the Judiciary as well as economic integration.

Article 11 however is reflective of the genesis of the idea for the new organization for it deals with the establishment and maintenance of arrangements for joint overseas representation by the member states. The foreign policy thrust of the Treaty is finally underpinned in the Institutions which the Treaty sets up for the organization.

The Treaty lists five principal institutions through which the organisation will accomplish its functions. Although foreign policy coordination and harmonization seems to be at the heart of the OECS Treaty, it nevertheless gave an important place to functional cooperation. The 1 Paper No. OECS was formed from an organization which had enjoyed up to that point, a relatively successful his tory of functional cooperation among its members in some technical fields and cooperation on some political issues.

Indeed the desire to continue and to strengthen these functional cooperation activities is dominant in the preamble to the Treaty.

Further in Article 3. The Treaty also took account of the history of economic integration among the member states. In Article 3. The ECCM was administered by a Council of Ministers - The Trade Ministers of the countries — and while their decisions would ultimately be ratified by their Heads of government, the latter did so, not through the collective mechanism of the WISA Council, but in their individual capacities as heads of their island administrations.

The Treaty therefore essentially formalised and gave institutional expression to the informal and other aspects of the integration experience of the Eastern Caribbean States. It did not declare any bold vision of a political or economic union as an ultimate goal. Instead Article 3. However, by its call for the 2 Paper No. By the time the OECS Treaty came into being in , the majority of these principles of the Common Market had not been put in place although the ECCM Agreement had come into force thirteen years before and some of the principles were to have been implemented within three years of the signing of the Agreement.

The establishment of the OECS did not lead to a renewed focus on these princ iples. The OECS Treaty was seen as, and in fact turned out to be, primarily a vehicle through which the member states were formalizing and quietly continuing that fourteen year process of regional integration which, during that time, had largely been concerned with functional cooperation in some fields of government that had not been very politically salient. The Treaty essentially brought into the picture — a new area of cooperation — foreign policy, specifically joint overseas representation.

The Treaty was not however conceived as a foundation or a platform for building a deeper form of union- either political or economic — and so did not commit its member states to achieving such a union in time.

However the economic integration dimension of the Treaty — the ECCM Agreement — does contain elements that can be utilised in constructing such a union. In Dominica opted to become a separate colony as part of the Windward Islands; but the federal status continued for the remainder of the Leeward Islands until when each Dependency was permitted to join the West Indies Federation as a separate government.

During the four years of 'Federation' from to , Dominica sent two elected representatives, Mr. E O Leblanc and Mrs. Phyllis Shand Allfrey, and two nominated Senators, Mr. Austin Winston and Mr. One of the elected representatives Mrs.

She was the only female Minister of the Federal Government which effectively came to an end with the withdrawal of Jamaica and Trinidad and Tobago. Four major areas have been identified as being critical to the success of this new Union. They are law and order, transportation, energy and education. Sir K. Dwight Venner, Governor of the Eastern Caribbean Central Bank stresses that, the critical elements for success in transforming these economies, now we have started down this path, will be the following:.

The Treaty also empowers the Authority, by unanimous decision, to add to this list any governmental entity whose functions relate to all the full Member States. It was envisaged that all domestic legislation to give effect to the Revised Treaty would have been enacted no later than June 18th ; that all actions necessary to give full effect to the free movement of people within the countries of the Union will be completed by August 1st at the very latest; and that a driver's licence issued in one OECS country will be accepted for use in another country for short term visits.

Under the provisions of The Treaty Member States give an undertaking to enact legislation to delegate legislative competence in very specific areas to the central organ of the Union. While it may appear at first glance that member States may have to overcome constitutional hurdles to give effect to the provisions of the Treaty, and may even have to give up some of their sovereignty and authority, no Member State is under an obligation to amend its Constitution, and therefore its obligations as to implementation are, to that extent, circumscribed accordingly.

The specific areas of legislative competence to be delegated to the Organisation are in respect of matters relating to the common market, monetary policy, trade policy, maritime jurisdiction and boundaries and civil aviation. It is therefore incumbent on the local legislatures to take action on these and other matters contained in the Treaty whenever the circumstances require them to do so.

Article 14 2 of the Treaty gives the Organisation overriding legislative competence, in relation to common commercial policy, environmental policy and immigration policy, if these powers have been delegated to the Authority by the Member States. This means that the legislation made by the Authority on those matters will take precedence over local laws.

This new arrangement is meant to facilitate the effective coordination of policies in these three important areas, and also the ability to implement them in a timely fashion. The Governance arrangements are contained in Article 7 of the Treaty, and I will discuss them briefly in turn. These Organs of the Organisation are to perform their functions and act within the limits of the powers conferred upon them by the Treaty, the Dispute Settlement Annex and the Economic Union Protocol, which are all contained in one document.

This is the supreme policy-making organ of the Organisation. It exercises the general direction and control of the performance of the functions of the Organisation.

It has the power to make decisions on all matters within its competence, but those decisions other than decisions on procedural matters require the affirmative vote of all full Member States who are present and voting at the meeting at which those decisions are taken.

But those decisions will have no force and effect until the Heads of Government of those full Member States who were not present at the meeting have, within the period allowed for consideration of the matter, expressed either support for, or abstention in relation to that decision. However, the absence of a response from a Head of Government by the end of the period allowed for consideration is to have the same effect as if that Head of Government had been present at that meeting and had abstained from voting.

For this purpose, the consideration period ends thirty days after that Head of Government has received advice on the decision from the OECS Commission. Decisions on procedural matters can be made by a majority of the members present and voting at the meeting; but a decision on whether or not a matter is procedural is not a decision on a procedural matter. When a vote is taken, a Member State which is in arrears with its financial contributions for at least a full year is to be deemed to be abstaining and not present and voting on matters falling for consideration; but a majority of the other Member States may permit that Member State to vote.

The Authority is empowered to establish the financial arrangements necessary for meeting the expenses of the Organisation, and it is the final authority on questions relating to those financial affairs.

The Council of Ministers is intended to function according to the subject area which is under consideration. This body is responsible to the Authority, and must take action on any matter referred to it by the Authority. The Council is responsible for considering and reporting to the Authority on recommendations of the Commission for making Acts of the Organisation; and also for enacting into law, regulations to give effect to Acts enacted by the Authority. Regulations made by the Council have the same binding force as the Acts which authorise them.

The rules governing the unanimity of decisions, the absence of Member States from meetings, procedural matters, and the ability to determine its own procedure are the same as they apply to the Authority. I turn now to the Assembly. This is an entirely new body, and is by far the most important Organ of the Organisation which will directly affect Honourable Members, although Honourable Members will have an opportunity to influence any decisions which are to be taken at the regional level.

The main function of the Assembly is to serve as a filter for legislation to be passed by the Authority. Ideally it should examine critically, scrutinise and amend if necessary, all legislation which is placed before it. It is to be a replica of national legislatures with the government and opposition being represented in the same proportion as at national level.

In addition to reviewing legislation to be passed by the Authority, the Assembly could also play a significant role when it receives annual statements from the Heads of the other institutions of the Organisation. Each Parliament of an independent State is entitled to elect five of its members to the Assembly. The legislatures of non-independent Member States are to elect three members.

The membership must include at least two elected government members including the Head of Government and at least one opposition member including the Leader of the Opposition. If there are no elected opposition members in the local legislature, the Head of State of that Member State is empowered to designate a person to represent the opposition party or parties.

Where there is uncertainty as to the distribution of seats, or disagreement as to the selection of members, this matter is to be resolved by the local legislature. The tenure of membership of the Assembly is two years from the date on which the member was elected, or until the next general election for the local legislature which he represents, whichever is shorter.

Herein lies the contradiction, as the Member States cannot contract out of the obligation to amend their constitutions to make them convergent with their treaty obligations. This is in effect juridically unacceptable.

Returning to Article 5. It is recognized that various multilateral agreements elaborated today harbour potentially negative impacts for small states, lacking in both the expertise and financial resources to participate effectively in their elaboration, the implications of third party intervention in domestic affairs of states assume considerable relevance.

Where the executive in the exercise of prerogative powers sign on to such treaties, the requirement that they are incorporated before creating rights and obligations for private entities at the municipal level operates to ensure respect for the democratic principle and the separation of powers, both of which are indispensable for governance based on the rule of law.

As per Lord Steyn in re Mckerr,10 this is where dualism as a constitutional law concept may be seen to play a prophylactic role in the treaty implementation process of Commonwealth Caribbean states. Dualism as applied in the Commonwealth context has had both positive and negative attributes.

Postulated in other terms, if dualism as a prophylactic constitutional principle as operated positively to safeguard the rights of the ordinary citizen from the political excesses of executive indiscretion, the negative fall-out has been a culture of unimplemented decisions which has impeded the structured development of the regional economic integration movement.

But the corollary of this unrestricted treaty-making power is that treaties form no part of the domestic law unless enacted by the legislature…12 Further, to make assurance double sure, Article 1 of the Revised Treaty of Chaguaramas RTC pointedly provides as follows: Decisions of competent Organs taken under this Treaty shall be subject to the relevant constitutional procedures of the Member States before creating legally binding rights and obligations for nationals of such States.

This provision is, incontrovertibly, a clear statement of the dualist principle. Indeed this provision encapsulates the common law principle consistently applied by the judges of Commonwealth States. Since the overriding majority of CARICOM states subscribe to dualism, 13 a status which may be inescapably inferred form the provisions of Article 1 of the RTC, the provisions of treaties are incapable of having direct effect in the municipal law jurisdictions of such states.

Taking the foregoing into consideration, it is reasonable to conclude that Article 5. This can also be seen also a breach of the elementary principle of international law of nemo dat quod non habet which literally means no one gives what he doesn't have. This simply means that the OECS states, due to their dualist nature do not have the power to sign on to international treaties and laws and have them implemented into municipal law with direct effect. They also do not have the power to contract out of the obligation to amend their constitutions.

It must be noted that although the RTB fell short of establishing same, the OECS can still take pride in the high level of integration that they demonstrate. The OECS to date has been able to establish a stable and functioning monetary union. Article 6. In doing so, they broke the monopoly of a British company, Cable and Wireless, which had forced the inhabitants of the OECS countries to pay among the most expensive telephone rates in the world.

This will give legal effect to the rights and duties arising under the draft instruments. Governance and Caribbean Integration. Grenade, Wendy. Jessen, Anneke.