(CARICOM Secretariat, Turkeyen, Greater Georgetown, Guyana) The state of readiness for Single Market compliance of six Member States of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) is on the agenda for the Twentieth Meeting of the Bureau of the Conference of Heads of Government of CARICOM which will meet on Tuesday 18 April in Antigua and Barbuda.

The Bureau comprises current Chairman of the Conference, Hon Patrick Manning, Prime Minister of Trinidad and Tobago, Dr the Hon Kenny D. Anthony Prime Minister of Saint Lucia, (immediate past Chairman), incoming Chairman, the Hon. Dr. Denzil Douglas, Prime Minister of St Kitts and Nevis and CARICOM Secretary-General, H.E. Edwin Carrington.

On 1 January 2006, the CARICOM Single Market came into being with six Member States, Barbados, Belize, Guyana, Jamaica, Suriname and Trinidad and Tobago. Six other Member States, Antigua and Barbuda, Dominica, Grenada, St Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, and St Vincent and the Grenadines agreed to participate by 30 June 2006.

With respect to the three other Member States, The Bahamas is not yet a part of the Single Market arrangement while Montserrat, a British Dependency, awaits the necessary instrument of entrustment from the United Kingdom government in order to participate and Haiti has not completed its accession to the Revised Treaty of Chaguaramas.

Apart from giving attention to the state of readiness, the Bureau is also expected to discuss the Region’s progress towards the establishment of the framework for the Single Economy by 2008.

The Bureau will receive an update on developments in Haiti following the election of Dr Rene Preval as President on 7 February 2006.

The Bureau will also assess preparations for two imminent summit meetings in Europe. These are the Third CARICOM-Spain Summit set for 10-11 May in Madrid, Spain and the Fourth European Union and the Latin America and Caribbean (LAC) Summit scheduled for 12-13 May in Vienna, Austria.