ISDS Case Map
CARICOM
There are strident calls for the Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA), due to be signed by Cariforum in July, to be amended, varied or simply not signed. Any possible renegotiation of the treaty, it is acknowledged, might come at a potentially intolerable cost.
Prime Minister Bruce Golding has again sought to allay fears that CARIFORUM countries may have given up more than they will gain from the Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA) with the European Union.
The European Commission (EC) has flatly rejected as unfounded, suggestions that the CARIFORUM Group - Caribbean Community (Caricom) states and the Dominican Republic - was forced into the Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA) reached last December and that the negotiations were designed to split the ACP Group.
The Caribbean region expects to sign a new trade agreement with the European Union by the end of June, Trinidad and Tobago's trade and industry minister said on Tuesday.
CARIFORUM states including The Bahamas are now free to perform their respective legal reviews of the Economic Partnership Agreement [EPA] between the grouping and the European Union now that a legal scrub of the document has been completed, the Caribbean Regional Negotiating Machinery [CRNM] Director General Ambassador Richard Bernal confirmed yesterday.
The devil is in the detail.
That is how former secretary general of the Association of Caribbean States, Professor Norman Girvan, has described the Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA) between the European Union (EU) and CARIFORUM countries (CARICOM and Dominican Republic).
Professor Girvan warns that the EU-Caribbean EPA could widen inequalities among Caricom states
At the 19th Intercessional Meeting of Caricom Heads of Government in the Bahamas, Prime Minister Golding called on Caribbean companies to join together in joint ventures because, acting independently, individual enterprises will be unable to penetrate European markets or to achieve the levels of efficiency that each country requires to enter and dominate those markets. He said the Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA) will provide a challenge to which the region must respond.
A trade agreement with Canada is the next item on the agenda for the Caribbean Community (Caricom).
Caribbean Community (Caricom) Governments and the European Union will not be signing the controversial Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA) in April, as scheduled. They will instead sign the EPA two months later.
