Antigua parliament approves OECS economic union

Prime Minister Dr Baldwin Spencer told legislators Monday that the OECS will eventually create a single political space in the subregion.

"And so what we are doing here today, we are part of a fundamental, historical development of Herculean proportions.

"I eventually see, Madam Speaker, that if this thing works in the way we are anticipating, that it's not just a question of us collaborating and working more on the economic front, but inherent in this is the ultimate goal of integrating the OECS politically as well. That is the ultimate goal."

Spencer said that the OECS is already collaborating in areas of civil aviation, a currency union, education, judiciary, telecommunications and pharmaceutical procurement.

"We want to show to the world that we can go beyond that, moving at a higher level, integrating the subregion in a fundamentally deeper way.

"The founding fathers years ago ... that's how they envisaged it; that is what they wanted to create. We lost it, we got derailed along the way, but we have now reached a point where this is clearly the way to go," he said.

Antigua and Barbuda signed the Revised OECS Treaty of Basseterre on June 18, 2010 and was the first member state to have it ratified.

The OECS groups the islands of Antigua and Barbuda, Dominica, Grenada, St Lucia, St Vincent and the Grenadines, Montserrat, St Kitts and Nevis, Anguilla and the British Virgin Islands.