ISDS Case Map
EU
European Union
Guyana's President, Bharrat Jagdeo, said he was switching his position after two additional clauses were added to the original deal. The additions include stipulating that Europe would review the agreement every five years to analyze the economic impact the deal had on the Caribbean Community and the Dominican Republic and would make changes should the impact be adverse.
There is a general rush to get a “bilateral deal” done at the international as well as regional level in Asia, but many of the free trade agreements that have been negotiated or are being negotiated by Asian countries and the EU are “trade light” deals because they reflect foreign policy and political imperatives rather than economic goals, economic analysts said in Brussels last week.
Setting aside the character assassination, suggestions that Caribbean heads had agreed a flawed document, letters questioning the role of senior figures and damaging inter-institutional rivalry, what is clear is that a more fundamental philosophical divide has emerged in the context of the EPA over the direction in which the region and its integration process is headed.
The European Commission has offered to permanently scrap import duties on ethanol from Central America as part of ongoing discussions over an Association Agreement between the two regions.
Finally, the on-and-off official signing ceremony for a full Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA) between the Caribbean and the European Union (EU) is over.
French President Nicolas Sarkozy, declaring his love for Canada and touting his use of the Canadian model as an inspiration to reform France, says today's Quebec City summit with Prime Minister Stephen Harper will result in a "decisive impetus" toward an "ambitious" economic partnership agreement between Canada and the European Union.
Serbia's government yesterday decided to put the country's interim trade agreement with the European Union into full effect from January 1 2009.
After opting out of Wednesday's signing, Guyana's President Bharrat Jagdeo now says the country is ready to take forward the Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA) with Europe.
Canada's prime minister, Stephen Harper, and President Nicolas Sarkozy of France, who is the president of the European Union as well, are expected to sign an agreement for preliminary negotiations meant to create a trade pact between Canada and Europe that would be even more sweeping than the North American Free Trade Agreement.
The signing of the Economic Partnership Agreement between the European Union and the CARIFORUM Group - Caribbean Community states and the Dominican Republic - went ahead as planned. However, Guyana and Haiti, which had both expressed reservations about sections of the agreement, did not attend the signing ceremony in Barbados.
