ABOUT THE OECS

The Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States (OECS) is an International Inter-governmental Organisation dedicated to regional integration in the Eastern Caribbean.

This is the cooperation of Countries who signed the Treaty of Basseterre to work together for a common interest like peace, stability and wealth. The OECS Commission has 5 Strategic Objectives on key aspects of Regional Integrations, Resilience, Social Equity, Foreign Policy, Improving and Strengthening the Commission in delivering its mandate.

The Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States came into being on June 18th 1981, when seven Eastern Caribbean countries signed a treaty agreeing to cooperate with each other and promote unity and solidarity among the Members. The Treaty became known as the Treaty of Basseterre, named in honour of the capital city of St. Kitts and Nevis where it was signed.

OECS Integration Explained

What is the Eastern Caribbean Economic Union?

OECS Free Movement of Persons and Services

The 1981 Treaty was replaced in 2010 with a Revised Treaty of Basseterre, creating an economic union which is an agreement between countries where barriers to trade are reduced or removed for a single market with a customs union.

This Revised Treaty was signed on 18th June 2010 in Saint Lucia during the 51st Meeting of the Authority of the OECS. and establishes a single financial and economic space within which goods, people and capital move freely, monetary and fiscal policies are harmonized and countries continue to adopt a common approach to trade, health, education and the environment, as well as to the development of such critical sectors as agriculture, tourism and energy.

Significantly, the Treaty paves the way for the introduction of legislative competence at the regional level, so that the Member States of the Organisation act in concert to develop and enact legislation in certain areas specified in the Treaty.

The OECS is now an eleven-member grouping comprising the full Member States of Antigua and Barbuda, Commonwealth of Dominica, Grenada, Montserrat, St. Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia and St. Vincent and the Grenadines who are part of the Economic Union and received the full benefits of Economic Union like free movement of people and goods, with the British Virgin Islands, Anguilla, Martinique and Guadeloupe as associate members of the OECS.