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The Caribbean Community (CARICOM) was established in 1973. CARICOM is very closely related to Caribbean Free Trade Association (CARIFTA). CARIFTA came into power on May 1, 1968. The members during this time were Antigua, Barbados, Guyana, and Trinidad and Tobago. Other islands joined after, such as Dominica, Grenada, St. Kitts-Nevis, St. Lucia and St. Vincent, who all joined on July 1, 1968; Jamaica and Montserrat joined on August 1, 1968; Belize joined couple years later in May 1971. The purpose of CARIFTA was to include all the Commonwealth countries in the Free Trade. In October 1972, at the seventh Heads of Government Conference, the Caribbean leaders decided to transform CARIFTA to become CARICOM. It was at the eighth Heads of Government Conference, April 1973, in Guyana where the decision to establish CARICOM came to pass. It was said there at the eighth Heads of Government Conference that the CARICOM Treaty on July 4, 1973, the independent countries Barbados, Guyana, Jamaica, Trinidad and Tobago, would sign for CARICOM and that CARICOM would come into effect on August 1973. In Chaguaramas, Trinidad on July 4, 1973, as said at the eighth Heads of Government Conference, the Treaty of Chaguaramas, the treaty which establishe