The seat of the CARICOM Secretariat is in Guyana and its official language is English.  CARICOM comprises fifteen full members, five associate members, and seven observers. Since 1992, the Secretariat has been headed by Secretary-General Mr. Edwin W. Carrington, with the Heads of member States providing oversight leadership.

CARICOM is an organization of 15 Caribbean nations and dependencies, with main purposes of promoting economic integration and cooperation among its members, to ensure that the benefits of integration are equitably shared, and to coordinate foreign policy.

Its major activities involve coordinating economic policies and development planning; devising and instituting special projects for the less-developed countries within its jurisdiction; operating as a regional single market for many of its members (Caricom Single Market); and handling regional trade disputes.

Since the establishment of CARICOM by the mainly English-speaking parts of the Caribbean region, the Organisation has become multilingual in practice, with the addition of Dutch-speaking Suriname on 4 July, 1995 and Haiti, where French and Haitian Creole are spoken, on 2 July, 2002.      

In 2001, the Heads of Government signed a revised Treaty of Chaguaramas, thus clearing the way for the transformation of the idea for a Common Market aspect of CARICOM instead of a Caribbean (CARICOM) Single Market and Economy. Part of the revised treaty among member states includes the establishment and implementation of the Caribbean Court of Justice.

The first four signatories to establish CARICOM, which superseded the 1965-1972  Caribbean Free Trade Association (CARIFTA), were Barbados, Jamaica, Guyana and Trinidad and Tobago.

The Revised Treaty of Chaguaramas  establishing the Caribbean Community, including the CARICOM Single Market and Economy (CSME), was signed by the CARICOM Heads of Government of the Caribbean Community on 5 July, 2001 at their Twenty-Second Meeting of the Conference in Nassau. 
All of the Organisation’s associate members are British overseas territories, and it is currently not established what the role of the associate members will be.

The observers are states which engage in at least one of CARICOM’s technical committees.

Under Article 4 the CARICOM Organisation breaks its 15 member states into two groups: Less Developed Countries (LDCs), and More Developed Countries (MDCs).

The countries of CARICOM which are designated as Less Developed Countries (LDCs) are: Antigua & Barbuda, Belize, Commonwealth of Dominica, Grenada,
* Republic of Haiti, Montserrat, Federation of St. Kitts & Nevis, St. Lucia,  and St. Vincent & the Grenadines.

* The countries of CARICOM which are designated as More Developed Countries (MDCs) are: Commonwealth of the Bahamas, Barbados, Co-operative Republic of Guyana, Jamaica, Republic of Suriname, Republic of Trinidad & Tobago.

Three countries – Barbados, Jamaica and Trinidad and Tobago, had originally set 5 January 2005 as the date of signing the agreement relating to the (CSME).

The ceremony had then been rescheduled to coincide with the 19 February, 2005 inauguration of the new CARICOM-headquarters building in Georgetown, Guyana, but this was later postponed after a ruling[by the London Privy council caused alarm to several Caribbean countries.

The prospect was that ten of the remaining twelve CARICOM countries would join the CSME by the end of 2005. The Bahamas and Haiti were not expected to be a part of the new economic arrangement at that time. The CARICOM Secretariat maintains frequent contact with another organisation named the Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States (OECS), which represents seven Full members and two Associate members of CARICOM in the Eastern Caribbean.

Many of the OECS countries are seeking to maintain themselves as a micro-economic grouping within CARICOM.

The CARICOM Single Market and Economy treaty finally went into effect on 1 January 2006, with Barbados, Belize, Jamaica, Guyana, Suriname and Trinidad and Tobago as the first full members. On 3 July 2006, the total membership was brought up to twelve when Antigua and Barbuda, Dominica, Grenada, St. Kitts and Nevis, St. Lucia, and St. Vincent and the Grenadines became full members.

The British overseas territory of Montserrat is seeking permission from the United Kingdom to become a part of the single market; Haiti will not join the market initially because of its difficult internal political situation; and the Bahamas will not join because of local opposition to a provision that allows skilled workers to move more easily among nations.

Currently (as of early 2009) twelve Member States have introduced CARICOM passports. These states are Antigua and Barbuda, Barbados, Belize, Dominica, Grenada, Guyana, Jamaica, St. Kitts and Nevis, St. Lucia, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, Suriname and Trinidad and Tobago. CARICOM members yet to issue the common passports are Bahamas, Montserrat and Haiti.  The CARICOM passport creates awareness that CARICOM nationals are nationals of the Community, as well as a specific country.

During the July 2006 CARICOM Summit, the various leaders reached an agreement on measures to ensure hassle-free movement for visitors to the 2007 Cricket World Cup, as well as intelligence sharing and cooperation for the security of the event.

People were originally to be able to travel amongst the nine host countries and Dominica between 15 January, 2007 and 15 May, 2007 using a single CARICOM visa.

However, during a meeting in Trinidad and Tobago on 29 December, 2006, the Heads of Government decided to push back the creation of the Single Domestic Space to 1 February, 2007 in response to representation from tourism ministers and others involved in the tourism industry.

A single CARICOM visa had been considered for the Cricket World Cup as far back as March 2005. The (CARICOM) visas were originally to have been issued from 15 August 2006, but that deadline was pushed back to early November 2006. However, that deadline also lapsed.

Finally it was announced on 4 December, 2006 that the visas were ready and the application process began on 15 December, 2006.
Cruise ship passengers not staying more than 24 hours at any of the 10 Caribbean countries were issued with a CARICOM day pass.

However, those who were staying on cruise ships, dubbed “floating hotels” for the duration of the games, were required to obtain a visa unless their countries fell within those that are exempted.

At the 28th CARICOM Heads of Government Conference in Barbados it was agreed to implement a CARICOM travel card that will be issued to every CARICOM national except those on the Community’s watch list.

An implementation plan for the document will be put together and submitted to the Heads at the next inter-sessional meeting to be held in September.

The card will virtually maintain the ‘single domestic space’ and holders will not need a passport, during inter-community travel.

The card will also allow a CARICOM national an automatic six-month stay in any territory within the bloc. It is not expected to affect the security of the member countries, as any holder will be deported if he or she breaks the law.

Similar to the “Pass Cards” available in other parts of the world, the new card would be the size of a credit card and will feature facial and fingerprinting biometrics – so upon arrival at an airport, travellers can swipe the card in the machine which will open the barrier allowing them to walk thr
ough.

In addition to being available to all CARICOM nationals, the card would be available to expatriates who have legal status in a member country. Their card would be time-bound in a way that is linked exclusively to the time of their legal status.
From around the year 2000, CARICOM states have placed a new focus and emphasis on establishing Free Trade Agreements (FTAs) with local and international trading partners.

In the past, this was done in collaboration with the Caribbean Regional Negotiating Machinery (CRNM).  However, in 2009, the CARICOM Heads of Government have voted for the CRNM to be moved to the Caribbean Community Organisation and be renamed the CARICOM Office of Trade Negotiations (OTN).      
Last Sunday, President Bharrat Jagdeo joined 10  of 14 colleagues (CARICOM) Heads of Government at the meeting of the Prime Ministerial Sub-Committee on External Negotiations, which discussed matters pertaining to the Community’s Secretariat’s Strategic Plan for 2009-2015 with a view to determining its priorities over the next five years.

The hours-long meeting was held moments before the Grand Gala opening of the thirty-first meeting of the Conference of Heads of Government of the Caribbean Community at the Rose Hall Resort and Spa, A Hilton Resort I Montego Bay, Jamaica.

At the Thirtieth Meeting of the Conference of Heads of Government of the Caribbean Community, President Bharrat Jagdeo, as CARICOM Chairman, said, “phenomenal improvements have occurred in the health care of the peoples of the Caribbean since our independence.  We acknowledge that Cuba, with no comparable equal, deserves credit for helping to catapult forward our health systems through a constant inflow of competent Cuban health professionals, and additionally, through the provision of generous scholarship programmes for CARICOM nationals to the now renowned educational institutions of your country.  I offer the sincere gratitude of the Caribbean people.”
President Bharrat Jagdeo continued, “These relations have not been cosmetic, unilateral, or merely for the satisfaction of conventions.  In global fora, our history and our realities have often made for the pursuit of identical goals.  Whether it was the liberation of oppressed peoples, South/South cooperation, the Non-Aligned Movement, the Group of 77 and China, the United Nations, and even in those organisations in which Cuba continues to be unfairly denied its place, the concurrence of our views and actions have been mutually reinforcing”.
Guyana has historically been in the forefront promoting regional integration and cooperation as the only way to combat and overcome the fallout from the dynamics of global industrialization and a trading paradigm that lean precipitously toward submergence of developing countries by the synergies of the economies of developed countries. 
Guyana’s torchbearer, President Bharrat Jagdeo, has been lauded for his visionary and strong leadership in regional affairs, as was starkly shown during the cataclysmic furore over the EU-driven Economic Partnership Agreement, in which there was anything but partnership offered to members of CARIFORUM. 
The Jagdeo Initiative on Agriculture is another drive to empower CARICOM member states through driving self-sufficiency in food production to ensure food security in the region, because, while solidifying developmental imperatives in Guyana, he is also concerned about regional development, thus his determined efforts to optimize regional integration and cooperation.