CARIFTA

(37) These leaders proved prophetic; the Caribbean Free Trade Association (CARIFTA) was created in the mid-1960s.

In 1965 Antigua-Barbuda, Barbados, Guyana, and Trinidad and Tobago led the creation of the Caribbean Free Trade Association (CARIFTA) that narrowed focus to economic integration.

After a year on the job, Blake prepared to leave CARIFTA to take a postgraduate scholarship.

With this in mind, in 1972 the Caribbean leaders took a significant step towards economic integration, transforming CARIFTA into a common market, which was part of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM).

Libre Comercio (CARIFTA), integrada tanto por Estados independientes como por colonias, y cuyo objetivo inicial fue eliminar los aranceles para el comercio intraregional y alentar la sustitucion de importaciones, a fin de favorecer la industrializacion.

Between July and December 1965 three Caribbean countries discussed and established the Caribbean Free Trade Association (CARIFTA), although they delayed its actual operation to allow several other countries to come aboard.

In this winning poem, "Caribbean Unity," Black Stalin points to the political gains in defining our collective selves as "one race / From the same place / That make the same trip / On the same ship," but he also recommends the religious aspect of Ethiopianism -- Rastafarianism -- as the way forward: "If the Rastafarian movement spreading / But the Carifta dying slow / Then is something Rasta done / That the politician don't know ..." Black Stalin, locating his personal "I" openly in Ethiopianism, takes a swing at the intellectuals who have barricaded themselves against this understanding, long part of the Afro-tradition:

One way to avert this disastrous situation would be to promote trade among developing countries by strengthening and expanding regional trade organizations like Caribbean Community (CARICOM) and Caribbean Free Trade Association (CARIFTA).