BASSETERRE, St. Kitts, CMC – Leaders of the Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States (OECS) will seek to iron out complexities related to their proposed economic and political union with Trinidad and Tobago when they meet with Prime Minister Patrick Manning here on Thursday, host Prime Minister Denzil Douglas has said.

“We have to look at how Trinidad and Tobago would adjust to the common currency that we use in the OECS countries; whether we will begin to use the Trinidad currency or whether Trinidad will begin to use our currency or whether there will be come kind of convergence of currencies as we look at the way forward,” Douglas told journalists here on Wednesday.

In August, Manning, along with the leaders of Grenada, St. Lucia and St. Vincent and the Grenadines, agreed, in a joint declaration, to establish a framework for closer cooperation towards the achievement of a single economy by 2011 and appropriate political integration by 2013.

Since then OECS leaders met in St. Lucia and fully endorsed the proposal.

However Douglas described the move towards political union as “a very serious initiative” and pointed to the need for further discussion on the way forward.

“We believe that we wanted to discuss that in a much more frank and open way in the presence of the Prime Minister Manning and so we invited him to come to St. Kitts and Nevis when we meet on Thursday to pursue this particular discussion,” he said.

The Kittitian prime minister is also anticipating that the move towards closer union will see the oil rich republic investing some of its petroleum dollars in the OECS sub-region.

“We would also want to make sure that there would be solid investment by Trinidad investors in the smaller economies of our countries or whether we would simply have the investment in Trinidad and Tobago,” he said.

He said the whole union idea was still very much in the “discussion stage”, adding that while “we say it is desirable, we do not know what the Heads of Government will say collectively to the request of Trinidad and Tobago to become a member of the OECS”.

Joining Manning and host Prime Minister Douglas for Thursday’s meeting which takes place at the headquarters of the Eastern Caribbean Central Bank will be the leaders of Antigua and Barbuda, Montserrat, St. Lucia and St. Vincent and the Grenadines.

A statement issued by the Office of Prime Minister here on Wednesday also said that Grenada’s Prime Minister Tillman Thomas will be represented by his Foreign Minister Peter David, while Dominica’s Prime Minister Roosevelt Skerrit continues to assess the damage caused by the recent passage of Hurricane Omar and will therefore miss the meeting.

Also absent will be the British Virgin Islands Chief Minister Ralph O’Neal and his Anguillan counterpart Osbourne Fleming.

CMC/08