The Caribbean Community (CARICOM) was established in 1973. CARICOM is very closely related to Caribbean Free Trade Association (CARIFTA). CARIFTA came into power on May 1, 1968. The members during this time were Antigua, Barbados, Guyana, and Trinidad and Tobago. Other islands joined after, such as Dominica, Grenada, St. Kitts-Nevis, St. Lucia and St. Vincent, who all joined on July 1, 1968; Jamaica and Montserrat joined on August 1, 1968; Belize joined couple years later in May 1971. The purpose of CARIFTA was to include all the Commonwealth countries in the Free Trade. In October 1972, at the seventh Heads of Government Conference, the Caribbean leaders decided to transform CARIFTA to become CARICOM. It was at the eighth Heads of Government Conference, April 1973, in Guyana where the decision to establish CARICOM came to pass. It was said there at the eighth Heads of Government Conference that the CARICOM Treaty on July 4, 1973, the independent countries Barbados, Guyana, Jamaica, Trinidad and Tobago, would sign for CARICOM and that CARICOM would come into effect on August 1973. .
In Chaguaramas, Trinidad on July 4, 1973, as said at the eighth Heads of Government Conference, the Treaty of Chaguaramas, the treaty which established CARICOM, was signed by Barbados, Guyana, Jamaica, Trinidad and Tobago and came into effect on August 1, 1973. The remaining eight territories "Antigua, Belize, Dominica, Grenada, St. Lucia, Montserrat, St. Kitts-Nevis, and St. Vincent joined by May 1, 1974 because of the Georgetown Accord which is the formal arrangement that allowed these eight territories to join CARICOM. There are other islands of the Caribbean who are not a part of CARICOM and are known as CARICOM Observers. These islands are Anguilla, The Cayman Islands, Haiti, Puerto Rico, Aruba, Columbia, Mexico, Venezuela, Bermuda, Dominican Republic, and Netherlands Antilles.