KINGSTON, Jamaica - THE global economy is traversed by a network of constantly shifting economic/trade blocs, of which the 15-member Caribbean Community (CARICOM) has been the second-longest running economic integration scheme, at 40 years old, counting from the 1973 Treaty of Chaguaramas.
Only the European Union (EU) has been around longer, having begun as an integration project with six countries in 1958, now grown to 27 member states.
But the English-speaking countries of the Caribbean have been pursuing economic integration since the establishment of the auspiciously named Caribbean Free Trade Area (Carifta) in 1968.