Introduction

In 1973, four Caribbean States – Trinidad and Tobago, Barbados, Jamaica, and Guyana – entered into a Treaty Establishing the Caribbean Community and Common Market (CARICOM) at Chaguaramas. Eleven further Caribbean States subsequently became Contracting Parties to that Treaty. 1 The 1973 Treaty of Chaguaramas provided for the free movement of the factors of production and for the co-ordination of many policies. It has been described by Professor Duke Pollard as ‘little more than an optical illusion in terms of positive enforceable rights and legally binding obligations’. 2 Revision was necessary in order to deepen regional economic integration and to respond to the challenges of globalisation. This need was acknowledged by the Heads of Government of the Member States of the CARICOM in 1989 at a Conference held in Grand Anse, which decided to establish the CARICOM Single Market and Economy

(CSME). As a result, the 1973 Treaty of Chaguaramas was, 16 years later, replaced by the Revised Treaty of Chaguaramas Establishing the Caribbean Community including the CARICOM Single Market and Economy (RTC). It entered into force on 1 January 2006. 3

One of the vital elements of the RTC is its inclusion, under Chapter VIII, Part One, of competition policy and law as areas of CARICOM competence. Chapter VIII also provides for the establishment of a system for enforcement of competition law. This system comprises the CARICOM Competition Commission (CCC), which was inaugurated on 18 January 2008, the Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ), which was established on 16 April 2005, and national competition authorities (NCAs) (see Chapter 8 , section 8.2.1.3). A further organ of CARICOM, the Council for Trade and Economic Development (COTED), which consists of ministers designated by the Member States, is empowered to establish appropriate policies and rules of competition, including special rules for particular sectors, 4 as well as to exempt any sector of the economy or any enterprise or group of enterprises from the application of competition rules. 5 The enforcement system is in the process of construction. Nevertheless, the CCC conducted its fi rst investigation, and the CCJ rendered its fi rst judgment in competition matters, in the Trinidad Cement Ltd v CCC case. 6 This indicates that CSME competition law will grow in parallel with the development of the CSME.