ABSTRACT
The smaller islands of the Eastern Caribbean, while part of the larger community, have created their own instruments of economic, functional, and political cooperation. The importance of Caricom trade is highlighted, as is the continuing importance of the UK and the growth in trade, primarily imports, with the United States. Specialists in the Caribbean would readily agree that the main sources of bilateral foreign aid and investment to the Caribbean have been the United States, the UK, and Canada. The Caribbean region benefits from its own multilateral bank, the Caribbean Development Bank, and from the Inter-American Development Bank, agencies whose lending activities have been incorporated in the preceding discussion. Given the deep economic problems of most Caribbean nations, they have not surprisingly joined in the Third World call for a New International Economic Order, support for which has brought them into some disagreement with the developed countries as a whole and the United States in particular.
