ABSTRACT
The history of Caribbean integration exemplifies the general evolution of the politics of regional integration among developing countries. This is evident in the overall Caribbean integration movement as well as in the specific policy area of agriculture. The Caribbean Investment Corporation, which was seen as the major concession to the less developed countries in exchange for their support for the Common External Tariff, is defunct. The creation of the Caribbean Food Corporation provided a regional institution endowed with extensive powers to undertake direct action in the production and marketing of agricultural inputs and commodities. Success in the agricultural sector may or may not contribute to a renewal of the stalled integration movement; but whatever the outcome, regional policies in this sector provide the most far-reaching example to date of an attempt to satisfy basic needs through collective self-reliance.
