Where to Test?

Abstract

Situated between the land masses of North and South America, bordered to the West by Central America and to the East by the Atlantic ocean, rests the Caribbean Sea. (See Figure 5.1) The Caribbean washes many islands which have been arranged by the forces of history into 16 nation states and 13 dependencies, possessions, and territories. (Deere, et al, 1990).¹ The Caribbean Economic Community (CARICOM), a common market made up of the English-speaking nations of the region, represents the region’s only operating trade arrangement. The membership of CARICOM consists of Antigua and Barbuda, the Bahamas, Barbados, Belize, Dominica, Grenada, Guyana, Jamaica, Montserrat, St. Kitts-Nevis, St. Lucia, St. Vincent, and Trinidad-Tobago.(Worrell, 1987).² Total population served by CARICOM countries is approximately 5.8 million (1990). Administered as colonies of Great Britain until the 1950s, the islands traded primarily with the U.K. Coinciding with the ending of colonial rule came the development of new economic activity, such as bauxite mining and tourism, which led to a shift in the orientation of economic relations towards the U.S. The CARICOM countries continue to export the traditional agricultural products to the U.K., such as bananas and sugar, but their principal market for the dominant foreign exchange earning sectors — mining, tourism and manufacturing — is the U.S. As a group, CARICOM countries tend to produce a narrow range of commodities for export and import a wide diversity of goods — both finished and intermediate.

“The Caribbean was borne like an elliptical basin in the hands of acolytes, and a people were absolved of a history which they did not commit” Derek Walcott The Star-Apple Kingdom