The Caribbean has often been defined as one of the richest laboratories of social scientists. It owes this reputation to the combination of the sheer intensity of its experience of so many of the forces that created the modern era, on the one hand, and the extraordinary, subtle diversity of its many component states and societies, on the other. . For development scholars, the importance of the Caribbean is further heightened by the fact that it is alone in the developing world in belonging to two of the great North-South systems of the 20th century: the American hemispheric system with the United States as its metropolis . and Latin America and the Caribbean as the periphery, and the European imperial system with Great Britain, France and the Netherlands, and now the European Union (EU), as the metropolis and Africa, the Caribbean and the Pacific as the periphery. (Payne and Sutton, 2001) Viability and Vulnerability - The Caribbean region is made up of twenty-eight relatively small independent and dependent territories and sovereign states. Their small size, susceptibility to natural disasters and general ecological vulnerability make the Caribbean a special case of development. Small geographic size limits the quantity and diversity of natural resource endowments and limits the scope of economic diversification. Relatively, the small size of states limits their ability to absorb citizens into economic life, so much so that labor emigration becomes a permanent feature of those societies. The small size entails general problems for states. Baker recognizes, however, that “scale can and does have serious consequences for many aspects of life in small towns, especially in terms of economic and political vitality and vulnerability. Inher......middle of paper....../business/business10.html4. WTO website. “Work on special and differential provisions”. Retrieved October 26, 2009 http://www.wto.org/english/tratop_e/devel_e/dev_special_differential_provisions_e.htm5. Gerber, J., (2008) International Economics. San Diego State University. Pearson (4th edition)6. Todaro,M., & Smith, S., (2009)Economic development. Pearson Education Limited. USA (tenth edition).7. WTO website (5 March 2009). “Small Economies Work Programme”. Retrieved October 27, 2009.http://www.wto.org/english/tratop_e/devel_e/dev_wkprog_smalleco_e.htm8. International Monetary Fund. (June 23, 2000) IMF Background Paper on Offshore Financial Centers.http://www.imf.org/external/np/mae/oshore/2000/eng/back.htm9. Meeting of the General Council (28 July 2009). Retrieved October 27, 2009 www.wto.org/english/news_e/news09..../summary_qc_july09_e.pdf