ISDS Case Map
Jamaica
Prime Minister Bruce Golding has criticised the public and private sectors within Caricom for contributing to the region's lagging development status by not taking advantage of existing preferential trading arrangements.
Jamaica could become the business and industrial hub of the Caribbean and the Americas, thanks to the opportunities presented under the Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA), signed recently between CARIFORUM States and the European Union (EU).
A marathon debate on the contentious Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA) Bill ended in disarray in Jamaica Tuesday night after Members of the Opposition walked out of Parliament. The walkout was the first of its kind in almost 30 years but it failed to prevent the passage of the Bill which was done before the end of the sitting.
One of Jamaica's major trade unions is insisting that Jamaica could be heading down a dangerous path if it goes ahead and signs the controversial Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA) with the European Union.
The Jamaica Confederation of Trade Unions (JCTU) says it will seek to delay the signing of the proposed Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA), between CARIFORUM and the European Union, to allow for a review and possible renegotiation of the agreement.
The Jamaica Confederation of Trade Unions has joined in the call for the government to postpone signing the Economic Partnership Agreement recently negotiated with the European Union.
Article 149 requires the EC Party and the Signatory CARIFORUM states to provide for the protection of plant varieties in accordance with the TRIPS Agreement and to consider, in this connection, accession to UPOV, 1991.
In the light of the ongoing debate on the economic partnership agreement (EPA), the Jamaican Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade has released a chronology of the CARIFORUM EC/EPA negotiations
Jamaica enacted legislation for the protection of GIs through the Protection of Geographical Indications Act of 2004. However, protection under the law strictly complies with the standards laid out in the TRIPS Agreement and does not contemplate the "TRIPS plus" and "TRIPS extra" elements incorporated in the EPA.
The historic Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA) skilfully brokered last December between the Caribbean Forum of African, Caribbean and Pacific States (CARIFORUM) and the European Community (EC) is impressively wide in its scope, but the impact of its implementation in countries such as Jamaica is still largely unexplored.
