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Caribbean

Ramphal warns against ’devaluing goals’ of CSME
29-Jan-2009
Sir Shridath Ramphal has warned against the danger of "devaluing the goals" of the Caricom Single Market and Economy (CSME) and is urging the region’s decision makers to avoid a course that could only be "to our peril" at a time of enormous economic challenges.
EU déjà vu in the Caribbean
23-Jan-2009 The New American
Just as the European Union was sold to Europeans as a trade agreement even though it was actually a political union, so it has been sold again, this time to the islands of the Caribbean.
Guyana - Jagdeo says negotiating mechanism flawed
13-Jan-2009
President Bharrat Jagdeo has taken another jab at the Caribbean Regional Negotiating Machinery (CRNM). This time he is adamant that it cannot speak for Guyana at upcoming trade talks with Canada.
With economic integration on their minds
12-Jan-2009
Making hemispheric Economic Integration work for all. This is one of the aspirations spelled out in the report of the Partnership for the Americas Commission, a grouping of leaders from across Latin America and the Caribbean, which is linked to the Washington-based Brookings Institution.
Dominican Republic no longer interested in joining CARICOM
16-Dec-2008 Fresh Plaza
The country has no faith in CARICOM’s ability to either address pending agreements or to be the implementing authority for the CARIFORUM/EU Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA)
Expert calls for establishment of services coalition
20-Nov-2008
As the Economic Partnership Agreement “EPA Implementation Brainstorming Meeting”, continued yesterday, it was made clear that Antigua and Barbuda needed to establish a “services coalition”.
Free trade, suicide clause and growing hunger in Latin America and the Caribbean
24-Oct-2008 RMR
The free trade agreements that the US and the European Union “propose” to Latin America and the Caribbean include waiving sovereign control on food flows. The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization admits that although food production increased in the region, the number of people suffering hunger also did.
Two Caribbeans emerge at EPA signing
20-Oct-2008 Haitie-Diplomatie
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.
Guyana now ready to sign EPA
19-Oct-2008 Radio Jamaica
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.
CARIFORUM signs EPA without Guyana, Haiti
17-Oct-2008 Jamaica Observer
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.
Europe’s ploys to secure EPA signing coming to light
6-Oct-2008 Jamaica Observer
The many ploys that the European Commission has used to bulldoze Caribbean countries into signing the Economic Partnership Agreement with the European Union are coming to light.
Haitian social organizations welcome the refusal of Haiti to sign the EPA
1-Oct-2008 AlterPresse
It is imperative to continue with the mobilization so that Haiti remains part of the growing group which rejects the pressure being applied by the European Union for CARIFORUM members to sign the EPA at the next meeting, scheduled for 15 October in Barbados.
Selassie’s warning about Europe prophetic
22-Sep-2008 The Nation
The heated debates in the Caribbean surrounding this region’s involvement in an Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA) with Europe and the upcoming sixth summit of the African Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) countries in Ghana where similar issues will be debated, brings to memory the words of Ethiopian Emperor Haile Selassie who saw a long time ago the danger the European union — then the European Common Market — would pose for Africa.
CARIFORUM agrees to sign EPA
16-Sep-2008 Barnacle Grenada
Thirteen of the 15 Member States indicated their readiness to sign the Agreement at the Third Meeting of the Heads of State and Government of CARIFORUM held at the Sherbourne Centre, Barbados on Wednesday. Haiti indicated that there were reservations which had to be cleared at the Presidential level before signature of the document, while Guyana stated that it was not in a position to sign the EPA.
Open letter from the Caribbean Conference of Churches
13-Sep-2008 Caribbean Net News
While it has been asserted that failure to conclude the agreement within the timeframe dictated by the E.C. would threaten Caribbean exports to Europe, we feel that our leaders should not be constrained to pursue a course of action which could prove to be adverse to our people in the long run.
An ominous week
11-Sep-2008 Starbroek News
To the man in the street, it seems that the EPA, and the debate on it, have split Caricom governments, and that the prospects for their arriving at some harmonious agreement at this week’s Caricom meeting are not good.
Caribbean leaders urged to reject EU treaty
8-Sep-2008 RI
Church leaders in the Caribbean have urged regional governments to reject the Economic Partnership Agreement proposed by the European Union, saying the terms of the treaty would harm the economy, marginalize the poor, and undermine the Caribbean’s democratic institutions.
Let’s not build the EPA in the graveyard of regionalism
8-Sep-2008 Jamaica Gleaner
The Cariforum Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA) was initialled last December under extreme pressure of time and the threat of imposition of punitive tariffs on Caribbean exports in European Union (EU) markets. In the past nine months this 1,000 plus- page agreement has been examined closely, and found wanting in several respects. Every effort needs to be made to fix the problematic features before the agreement is legally cast in stone.
Guyana stakeholders ’roundly condemn’ Cariforum EPA
8-Sep-2008 Norman Girvan
Senior representatives of the government, the opposition political parties, the trade union movement, the private sector, religious bodies and other non-governmental organizations unanimously called on regional leaders not to sign it in its present form.
EPA signing fiasco: a high-stakes gamble
7-Sep-2008 Jamaica Gleaner
As matters stand, Trinidad, Jamaica, Barbados, the Dominican Republic, Belize, The Bahamas and St Vincent have said that they want to sign; St Lucia says it will not; Guyana is holding a public consultation; Grenada wants more time; and there is silence from almost all other Cariforum states. Meanwhile, some opposition parties have publicly disassociated themselves, most notably, in Jamaica and Antigua.