Jamaica has signed the CARICOM Protocol to Amend the Revised Treaty of Chaguaramas establishing the Caribbean Community, including the CARICOM Single Market and Economy, to allow Enhanced Cooperation among Member States and address Related issues.
This Protocol on Enhanced Cooperation, which CARICOM Heads of Government adopted at the Thirty-Third Inter-Sessional Meeting of the Conference of Heads of Government in March 2022 in Belize, is aimed at enabling groups of countries to advance deeper regional cooperation and integration mechanisms, even if others are not yet ready.
On Thursday, 3 April, Jamaica’s Minister of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade, Senator the Honourable Kamina Johnson Smith, signed the Protocol.
Commenting on the significance of the signing, she said,
“The Protocol will provide CARICOM with a practical tool to move forward, even when consensus in not immediate, by allowing three or more Member States to deepen cooperation in areas like trade and investment, while keeping the door open for others to join initiative when ready. Jamaica’s signature take the process one step further.”
The Protocol takes effect after ratification by the signatories to the Revised Treaty of Chaguaramas. So far, Antigua and Barbuda, Barbados, Belize, Dominica, Grenada, Guyana, Saint Lucia, St Kitts and Nevis, St Vincent and the Grenadines, Suriname, Trinidad and Tobago, and now, Jamaica, have signed.
