17-Jul-2008
Jamaica Observer
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.
16-Jul-2008
Norman Girvan
Analyses the Cariforum-EC EPA from a critical standpoint, including the EPA architecture, what each side gets from the Agreement, the scope of binding commitments, the institutional machinery and the scope for revision of the Agreement. The points are illustrated with direct quotations from the EPA text.
16-Jul-2008
Norman Girvan
The ACP countries, by opening up their markets freely to European goods, services and companies will be transformed into a state of development via an impressive chain of unproven, theoretical assumptions. The EPA itself is replete with development rhetoric and references to the development objectives of the Agreement, most, if not all, of which are compromised by the content of the Agreement itself. Nowhere in the Agreement is there a direct, targeted attack on the basic supply-side problem, let alone binding commitments to put in place a complement of measures aimed at this problem.
10-Jul-2008
Caribbean Net News
It has become patently evident that the European Union is taking the Caribbean for a ride over the Economic Partnership Agreement initialled last December. The Caribbean has to stop the ride and renegotiate the deeply troubling aspects of the EPA before any signing takes place.
17-Jun-2008
St Lucia Star
On Thursday June 12, organizations from around the region staged a protest against the EU-Caribbean Economic Partnership Agreement in front of White Hall, the prime minister’s office in Trinidad.
9-Jun-2008
Trinidad & Tobago Express
Calling for a re-negotiation of a new Economic Partnership Agreement, Federation of Independent Trade Unions and Non Governmental Organisations president David Abdulah says aspects of the agreement could prove to be harmful to the people of Trinidad and Tobago and the Caribbean.
9-Jun-2008
Jamaica Gleaner
The unprecedented impact of rising energy prices on the cost of ocean transport means that moving goods from one nation to another has become a bigger barrier to global trade than tariffs.
12-May-2008
Bahama Journal
Telecommunications and real estate in The Bahamas are two sectors that are, for now, off limits for negotiations under the proposed Economic Partnership Agreement between the European Community and CARIFORUM, State Minister for Finance Zhivargo Laing reported yesterday.
12-May-2008
Jamaica Gleaner
The Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA) between the European Commission and the Caribbean states will be signed in July. The decision was made at the 26th Special Meeting of the Council for Trade and Economic Development which ended in Antigua and Barbuda on Saturday.
21-Apr-2008
Jamaica Observer
Anyone could be forgiven for wanting to fall asleep whenever the new Economic Partnership Agreement between Europe and the Caribbean comes into the conversation. The language is so complex and dry that only professional diplomats can understand it. (And even some of them are pretending). But the Caribbean needs to pay attention, because the economic consequences of this new agreement are heading towards it like an express train with potentially catastrophic consequences.
31-Mar-2008
Jamaica Observer
Professor Girvan warns that the EU-Caribbean EPA could widen inequalities among Caricom states
15-Mar-2008
Jamaica Gleaner
So concerned is Brazil about the Caribbean EPA that it sent, on February 5, a communication to the World Trade Organisation requesting a debate. Its concern is that the arrangement agreed with the European Commission may cause nations like India, China and others to cease to negotiate with nations like the Caribbean.
16-Jan-2008
Norman Girvan
As initialled on 16 Dec 2007 and signed on 15 Oct 2008