BRIDGETOWN, BARBADOS (AP):
Caribbean leaders yesterday welcomed a free-trade zone designed to allow goods, services and skilled workers to move more easily throughout the region.
Six nations - Jamaica, Barbados, Belize, Guyana, Suriname and Trinidad and Tobago - became the first full members of the CARICOM Single Market as the treaty went into effect January 1. Other nations were expected to join later.
Edwin Carrington, secretary general of the 15-member Caribbean Community, said the agreement is "an important psychological and political step for this region" even though less than half the community's membership was ready to enter the trade accord.
