In a joint communique issued after OECS leaders concluded a summit last Friday, it was noted that the deficit between the sub-regional bloc and the 15 nation CARICOM had widened from US$214 billion in 1980 to US$418 billion in 2003.

The CSME will strip away national customs and tariff barriers, applying a single external tariff. It will also create a free market along similar lines to the European Union, allowing labour to move freely among member states.

However, despite concerns from the small economies of the OECS that they will be on an unequal footing economically with their larger peers in the community, St.Vincent Prime Minister Ralph Gonsalvez, the chairman of the OECS, stated that Eastern Caribbean nations are "committed" to the initiative.

Nonetheless, the OECS Secretariat has expressed "serious concerns" regarding the lack of "aggressive engagement" of the Eastern Caribbean business sector.

“The OECS business sector has not taken a proactive role at all in the issue of CSME," noted Director General Dr. Len Ishmael.

"It’s not countries that will be competitive. Firms are the ones that increase productivity by the degree to which they are able to be increasingly competitive…If they don’t sit at the table and discuss exactly what CSME means..we are not doing what’s in our strategic best interest," he observed.

Formed in 1981, The OECS includes Antigua and Barbuda, Grenada, St. Kitts, St. Vincent, the British Virgin Islands, Dominica, Montserrat, St. Lucia and Anguilla.