The Revised Treaty of Chaguaramas and its application in the Caribbean

The Treaty, CARICOM and the CSME

The Revised Treaty of Chaguaramas Establishing the Caribbean Community, Including the CARICOM Single Market and Economy, is the constitutive treaty of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) and of the CARICOM Single Market and Economy (CSME). It revises the Treaty done at Chaguaramas on 4 July 1973. The current official text is published by the Community, and should be read for the rights, obligations and institutional arrangements that it creates. This note describes the Treaty’s application, with particular reference to Guyana, from that text as given effect in Community institutions and in the judgments of the Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ). It is not a substitute for the Treaty, for the implementing legislation of a Member State, or for advice on a particular transaction or dispute.

The Treaty provides the legal framework for the CSME: a single economic space among participating Member States, in which Community nationals and enterprises may, on the terms of the Treaty, move goods, services, capital and skilled persons, and establish and operate businesses. The precise conditions of each of those rights, including any restrictions, derogations and accompanying Community instruments, are those of the Treaty and of the decisions and instruments adopted under it. This note does not attempt to catalogue every category of skilled national, or every condition of the right of establishment or of the provision of services. Those lists and conditions should be taken from the current official Community materials.

The common external tariff, rules of origin, and the movement of persons

Among the Treaty’s trade provisions is a common external tariff (CET) and a Community rules-of-origin regime, administered through Community organs including the Council for Trade and Economic Development (COTED). A Member State is not free, on the Court’s analysis, to suspend or vary the CET on its own authority where the Treaty requires a Community decision. That proposition was established, in a case brought against Guyana, in the original-jurisdiction proceedings described below.

The Treaty also provides for a Community competition policy and for the institutional arrangements, including a Competition Commission, through which that policy is applied. The Commission’s composition, procedures and any particular investigation should be taken from the Treaty and from official CARICOM materials; this note does not summarise individual Commission decisions.

Free movement of Community nationals has been the subject of later Community decisions which have not, as a whole, become a single regime applicable in every Member State. At the Forty-Fifth Regular Meeting of the Conference of Heads of Government in July 2023, the Conference decided to pursue free movement for all CARICOM nationals. The official Community account of that meeting records that some aspects of the Treaty would require amendment, with work directed towards 30 March 2024, and that Heads agreed to Haiti’s request for a derogation. That Community-wide timetable did not become general law for all Member States.

A later, narrower arrangement did take effect among four Member States. According to a Community statement of 30 September 2025, Barbados, Belize, Dominica and Saint Vincent and the Grenadines implemented full free movement of their nationals among themselves from 1 October 2025, under the Enhanced Cooperation Protocol to the Revised Treaty, which allows groups of at least three Member States to pursue deeper integration, with the option for others to join later. Nationals of those four States may travel to any of the four to reside, work and remain indefinitely, and have the right to access emergency and primary health care and public primary and secondary education for their children. They are not limited to temporary entry of up to six months, or to work under the CARICOM skills regime. The same statement is clear that other CSME Member States that have not joined that arrangement “will continue to facilitate movement of their nationals under the existing regime for skilled workers, for the provision of services and the operation of businesses.” Guyana is not one of the four participating States. Counsel advising on entry, work or establishment in Guyana, or on the movement of a Guyanese national to another Member State, should therefore apply the existing CSME regime and any applicable Guyanese immigration and labour law, and should not treat the four-State arrangement as applying here.

The Caribbean Court of Justice: original and appellate jurisdiction

The Caribbean Court of Justice was inaugurated in 2005 and is seated in Port of Spain. As the Court’s official account puts it, it is in effect two courts in one. In its original jurisdiction, it has exclusive and compulsory jurisdiction to interpret and apply the Revised Treaty. Its decisions in that jurisdiction are final. The Court’s own description is that the original jurisdiction is open to the twelve CSME Member States. In its appellate jurisdiction, the Court is the final court of appeal, in substitution for the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council, for five States: Barbados, Belize, Dominica, Guyana and Saint Lucia. Guyana is among those five. A contractual or constitutional appeal from Guyana’s Court of Appeal therefore lies, where the domestic law so provides, to the CCJ and not to the Privy Council. The two jurisdictions should not be confused: a commercial appeal from a Guyanese court is an appellate matter; a claim that a Member State has breached the Treaty is an original-jurisdiction matter, even if it arises from the same commercial facts.

The Treaty is given the force of law in Guyana by the Caribbean Community Act (Cap. 18:06, Act No. 8 of 2006). The official chapter records the date 1 January 2006. Section 3 provides that, subject to the Act, the Treaty shall have the force of law in Guyana, and that the Community shall have full juridical personality. Section 5 authorises the Minister responsible for CARICOM Affairs, by regulations subject to affirmative resolution, to implement Community obligations and to enable rights under the Treaty to be exercised. Section 6 provides that, for the purposes of all legal proceedings, any question concerning the interpretation or application of the Treaty, or concerning the validity, meaning or application of instruments made under it, shall be treated as a question of law to be referred to the Caribbean Court of Justice, where a court or tribunal seised of the issue considers that a decision on the question is necessary for it to deliver judgment. Section 8 provides that, in the event of inconsistency between the Act and any other law other than the Constitution, the Act prevails to the extent of the inconsistency.

The Agreement Establishing the Caribbean Court of Justice is given the force of law by the Caribbean Court of Justice Act (Cap. 3:07, Act No. 16 of 2004). The official chapter records the date 30 November 2004. Section 3 provides that the Agreement, and the Rules of Court made under it, shall have the force of law. Section 4 confers on the Court the original jurisdiction provided for in the Act as conferred by Part II of the Agreement, and the appellate jurisdiction provided for in the Act as conferred by Part III of the Agreement; subject to specified sections, the Court’s decisions are final. Section 5 gives the Court, in its original jurisdiction, exclusive jurisdiction to hear and deliver judgment on disputes between Contracting Parties; disputes between Contracting Parties and the Community; referrals from national courts; and applications by nationals concerning the interpretation and application of the Treaty, and to deliver advisory opinions at the request of a Contracting Party or the Community. Citizens, permanent residents or residents of Guyana, and companies incorporated or registered under the Companies Act, may, with the special leave of the Court, appear as parties on the conditions in section 5(2). Appeals to the Court lie as of right, with the leave of the Court of Appeal, or with the special leave of the Court, on the grounds in sections 6 to 8, including, as of right, civil matters of not less than one million dollars, questions as to the interpretation of the Constitution, and proceedings for constitutional redress of fundamental rights. Section 26 provides that, the Court being the final court of appeal for Guyana, all laws, including the Constitution, in force immediately before the commencement of the Act shall thereafter be construed and have effect with such modifications as may be necessary to bring them into conformity with the Act.

Two further statutes give domestic effect to particular CSME freedoms. The Caribbean Community (Movement of Factors) Act (Cap. 18:10) provides for the rights of nationals of a Member State in respect of establishment, the provision of services, and the movement of capital, for programmes to remove restrictions, and for safeguard measures, including restrictions to safeguard the balance of payments. The Caribbean Community (Free Entry of Skilled Nationals) Act (Cap. 18:08, Act No. 6 of 1996, as amended by Acts Nos. 15 of 2011 and 9 of 2014; the official chapter records the date 14 March 1996) provides for entry of skilled nationals of qualifying Community States. Section 3 deals with entry of indefinite duration, and section 4 with entry of six months’ duration. The qualifications for a Schedule II certificate, in section 8 as it stands in the official text, include university graduates; media workers; musicians; artistes; sports persons; teachers; registered nurses; persons holding associate degrees; artisans possessing a Caribbean vocational qualification or an approved national vocational qualification; domestics who have obtained a Caribbean vocational qualification; any qualification certified by the Secretary-General of the Community under section 9; and any qualification which the Minister may by order prescribe. Those statutes implement the existing CSME skilled-nationals and factors regime that continues to apply in Guyana; they do not themselves extend to Guyana the four-State full free-movement arrangement described above.

Leading cases and practical relevance for businesses and investors in Guyana

Three original-jurisdiction cases are of particular practical importance, and should be cited from the Court’s official reports.

In Trinidad Cement Limited and TCL Guyana Incorporated v The State of the Co-operative Republic of Guyana, the Court granted special leave in [2009] CCJ 1 (OJ) (15 January 2009), considering the standing of a private entity under Article 222 of the Treaty, and gave judgment on the merits in [2009] CCJ 5 (OJ) (20 August 2009). The merits judgment is the leading decision on Guyana’s obligations in respect of the CET, including the requirement for proper Community authority, through COTED, before a suspension of the tariff. It is of direct relevance to any importer, manufacturer or State authority concerned with the application or suspension of the CET in Guyana.

In Shanique Myrie v The State of Barbados [2013] CCJ 3 (OJ) (4 October 2013), the Court gave its merits judgment on the right of a CARICOM national to enter a Member State, and on the limits of a State’s power to refuse entry. Earlier procedural decisions in the same matter include [2012] CCJ 3 (OJ) and [2013] CCJ 1 (OJ)(R). The merits judgment is the leading authority on Community-law rights of entry, and is relevant wherever a CARICOM national’s treatment at a port of entry is in issue, including, in an appropriate case, in Guyana.

In Maurice Tomlinson v The State of Belize and The State of Trinidad and Tobago, the Court considered special leave in [2014] CCJ 2 (OJ). The Court’s later judgment on the merits is published on the CCJ website and should be cited from that official report. The case is part of the Court’s original-jurisdiction jurisprudence on the rights of Community nationals, and should be read in full before it is relied on.

For a business or investor in Guyana, the practical consequences may be summarised as follows. First, Guyana is a CSME Member State: the Treaty rights of establishment, of the provision of services, of the movement of skilled nationals and of the movement of goods, including the CET and rules of origin, apply on their Treaty terms, together with any applicable Guyanese implementing legislation. Second, those rights are justiciable in the Court’s original jurisdiction, and, as TCL v Guyana shows, a private entity may in a proper case obtain special leave to appear. Third, Guyana’s final appellate court is the CCJ; a dispute-resolution clause, and any question of precedent, should be drafted and argued with that in mind, as noted in the firm’s [note on dispute resolution](/insights/dispute-resolution-in-guyana). Fourth, the four-State full free-movement arrangement that took effect on 1 October 2025 does not apply to Guyana. Fifth, the Investment Act 2004 treats a citizen of any other CARICOM Member State as a “domestic investor,” which is relevant to the national-treatment analysis in the firm’s [note on investment incentives](/insights/investment-incentives-and-foreign-investment-legislation-in-guyana). None of those propositions dispenses with a close reading of the Treaty, the relevant Community instruments, and the Guyanese statutes that give them domestic effect.