St. Kitts & Nevis – June 19, 2010 (WINN):  The Organization of Eastern Caribbean States began its transformation into a single economic space, with the signing of the Revised Treaty of Basseterre in St. Lucia on Friday night, establishing the OECS Economic Union.

Outgoing Chairman of the OECS Authority St. Kitts and Nevis Prime Minister Dr. Denzil Douglas speaking of the successes of the sub region including its forty year old judiciary and its common currency said that the time had come for the Organization to move to the next phase.

“This seminal and far-reaching document will stand through history as testimony to our own maturity as a people, and it will stand as a testament of faith our faith in each other, and of our own collective future…Come let us step forward boldly to meet the demands of history” Dr. Douglas said at the signing ceremony Friday night.

The Prime Ministers of the six independent OECS states: Antigua and Barbuda, Dominica, Grenada, St Kitts and Nevis, St Lucia, and St Vincent and the Grenadines signed the Treaty on Friday night. 

Overseas Dependent Territory, Montserrat - the other full member of the sub-regional grouping - is expected to sign in the coming weeks, having just received entrustments from the United Kingdom, to participate in the Union.

The Treaty officially establishes the Economic Union, creating.  The creation of a single financial and economic space will involve the removing of barriers to trade in goods, services, capital and labour between markets of the sub-region.

The new Union also establishes a framework for greater co-operation and centralisation in areas such as crime and security; customs administration; the regulation of public utilities; legal drafting; trade negotiations and investment promotion.

The next phase to the realization of the OECS Economic Union will see member states passing legislation to give effect to the Treaty.