ISDS Case Map
Caribbean
The European Union (EU) representative to the region on Thursday pulled no punches as he criticised regional governments and the private sector for moving slowly to give effect to the Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA) that was signed more than three years ago.
The ACP and LDC cane sugar suppliers express their profound concern and dismay at the Commission’s proposals in respect of the elimination of sugar quotas in the context of the CAP reform announced on 12 October 2011.
Little has been said about how the Caribbean, Central America and eventually almost all of Latin America will in a matter of years be competing directly in Europe, writes David Jessop
In October 2008, when the 15 member countries of CARIFORUM (CF) individually signed a full Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA) with the collective European Union (EU) of 27 countries, much was made of the promise of increased benefits to Caribbean countries. Two and half years later, the promise remains unfulfilled.
Panama will attend the Caribbean Investment Forum in Trinidad and Tobago, to offer Caribbean countries like Barbados, Belize and Jamaica free trade agreements negotiations, according to an official source.
With the demise of the Free Trade Area of the Americas, a realignment of trade alliances is evident in the hemisphere—witness ALBA, Petro Caribe, expanded Mercosur. In the aftermath of the Lome Convention between the European Union and its former colonies of Africa, Caribbean and the Pacific, the age of preferential trade agreements came to an end and the era of reciprocal trade was born.
Small farmer organisations from across the Caribbean have criticized regional governments and their bureaucrats for leaving them to “see for themselves” during a period of rising food prices and declining agricultural products.
In contrast with the current wide-ranging financial reform agenda in the European Union, the EU continues to liberalise a wide range of risky and non-risky financial services in the General Agreement on Trade in Services and other Free Trade Agreements as if the financial crisis never happened. This SOMO briefing paper gives specific examples on how new EU regulations are in contrast with the pre-crisis model that is still being applied in the GATS negotiations, the Cariforum-EU Economic Partnership Agreement and the EU-South Korea FTA.
Almost two years after the controversial and sweeping trade pact known as an Economic Partnership Agreement was signed between the European Union and the Caribbean Forum countries, a new study says the impact of the EPA has proved to be, as its proponents claimed, relatively mild.
