Table 6.1: Selected Intergovernmental Organizations in the Western Hemisphere

Table 6.1

Selected Intergovernmental Organizations in the Western Hemisphere

Organization	Year Established	Member States	Key Objectives
Caribbean Community (CARICOM)	1972	Antigua and Barbuda, the Bahamas, Barbados, Belize, Dominica, Grenada, Guyana, Haiti, Jamaica, Montserrat, Saint Lucia, St. Kitts and Nevis, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, Suriname, Trinidad and Tobago (Associate Members: Anguilla, Bermuda, British Virgin Islands, Cayman Islands, Turks and Caicos Islands)	To improve standards of living and work To achieve full employment of labor To achieve sustained economic development and international competitiveness
Central American Integration System (SICA)	1993	Belize, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, Panama (Associate Member: Dominican Republic)	To establish regional peace, political freedom, democracy and economic development
North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA)*	1994	Canada, Mexico, United States	To eliminate barriers to trade and investment between member states
Union of South American Nations (UNASUR)	2004	Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Guyana, Paraguay, Peru, Suriname, Uruguay, Venezuela	To unite two existing customs unions, Mercosur and the Andean Community Ultimately to form the United States of South America, with a common currency, tariff-free common market, and regional parliament

*NAFTA has discussed incorporating greater integration measures in the future but currently is not equivalent in function or scope to the other international organizations shown in Table 6.1.