ISDS Case Map
Caribbean
A final make or break negotiating session is expected in the Caribbean at the end of November.
Having read the draft EPA, I can now confirm that in much of the document, the development dimension is referenced more in shadow than substance. A huge double standard is at play here and what is sauce for the goose is not sauce for the gander, writes a former Caribbean diplomat.
In the United States, experts debate whether biofuel growth in the tropics will cut into profits for Midwest producers. Special free-trade agreements with those countries can make it less expensive to ship ethanol from there to the US coasts.
Caribbean Community leaders may try to reinstate the EU sugar protocol through an international court.
Tempers flare as Caricom trade negotiators and the European Commission work with an October 15 deadline to initial an EU-Caribbean EPA
Last week, the EU unilaterally renounced a 32-year sugar protocol that had guaranteed fixed quotas and prices for ACP countries, with no clear indications of how exactly sugar will be treated in the new EPAs.
As September draws to a close, the likelihood diminishes that an economic partnership agreement (EPA) is achievable this year between the European Union and the Caribbean.
The Caribbean's chief trade negotiator says discussions on a draft for a new free trade agreement between Canada and the 15-member Caribbean Community (CARICOM) will begin later this year.
OECS Trade Ministers accommodated the European Commission's principal negotiator for the Economic Partnership Agreement, Karl Falkenburg on Wednesday.
The European Union (EU) has been pushing African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) countries to conclude Economic Partnership Agreements (EPAs) by the end of the year, claiming that preferences which they now enjoy will not be approved by the World Trade Organisation (WTO) come next year.
