CARICOM SECRETARY DENIES BLOC CRISIS

Port of Spain, May 18 (PL)- The general secretary of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM), Irwin LaRocque, refuted in Trinidad and Tobago accusations on an alleged crisis of the regional bloc nor the existance of concrete evidences to question its future existence. In interview for a local TV channel LaRocque exposed slants on the organization's imminent disband claiming its recent annual report as source of "serious structural fracture along several years resulting in ruinous economic situation under the influence of the 2008 global money crisis and risks of further worsening this year”. "I can not say it is all fine tuned; there are many challenges ahead and we need fast solutions which, by no means, that it will mean its demise”. The CARICOM undergoes today a review and underlines the bloc's international prominence on the advent of its 40th birthday, after its 1973 foundation with the signing of the Treaty of Chaguaramas, with goals set at improving trade coordination and integration of foreign policies, and promoting educational, cultural and industrial cooperation. Its full members today are Antigua and Barbuda, the Bahamas, Barbados, Belize, Dominica, Grenada, Guyana, Haiti, Jamaica, St Kitts and Nevis, St. Lucia, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, Suriname, Montserrat and Trinidad and Tobago. LaRocque, 56, is also co-president of the US-CARICOM Investment and Trade Council.

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