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Caribbean


Haitian social organizations welcome the refusal of Haiti to sign the EPA
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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.
Central America, the Caribbean and the impact of the European trade agenda
Latin American businessmen have long been lobbying for free trade agreements with the EU.
EPA deadline a moving target - It’s October 31 or nothing, says EU
A senior European Union diplomat in Kingston warned Wednesday that Caribbean countries that fail to sign a trade pact the region negotiated with EU by the October 31 deadline will lose preferential access for their product into the European market.
EU pact hit by last-minute revolt
Eight months after congratulating themselves for having become the first region within the African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) grouping to conclude negotiations with the European Union on a new trade and economic pact, Caribbean leaders are getting cold feet as the time draws near to affix their signatures to the document.
EPA ’merry-go-round’
A day after Caricom chairman Baldwin Spencer proposed September 8 for the signing of the Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA) with the European Union (EU) the Observer has learnt that the pact is now unlikely to be signed before either September 12 or September 19.
Latin America’s free trade agreements with the European Union - An agenda for domination
The EU is currently negotiating FTAs with Central America, the Andean Community of Nations and Mercosur. Its objective is to use these agreements to complete the privatisation process, to remove restrictions on European property and activity in the region, to acquire full access to natural resources and to obtain guarantees that European companies will be able to operate with clear advantages over national companies. Moreover, all these concessions granted to European companies are to be protected from any political changes that the peoples of the region might want to undertake in the future.
Where’s the partnership between Europe and the Caribbean?
On Sept. 2, 2008, some Caribbean countries will be signing an Economic Partnership Agreement with the European Union which is not fair and which, over time, may well return Caribbean countries to a state of “plantation economies” where the commanding heights are owned by foreign companies run by expatriate managers, and Caribbean people are merely workers.
’Bad deal’
They failed us! That’s what governments, intellectuals and trade unions in CARIFORUM (CARICOM and the Dominican Republic) who negotiated the Economic Partnership Agreement with the European Union did to this region, says James Paul, of the Barbados Agricultural Society.
Sept 2 signing of EPA now uncertain
There are new uncertainties surrounding the proposed signing of the full Economic Partnership Agreement on September 2 between the European Union and CARIFORUM - the Caribbean Community member states and the Dominican Republic.
Caribbean urged to renegotiate EPA
A former chief negotiator for the region said it is not too late for Caribbean Community (Caricom) countries to pull out of the Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA) with Europe.
Guyana accuses Europe of trade bullying
The Caribbean could suffer economically if a proposed free trade agreement between several regional countries and the European Union is signed because of damaging flaws in the deal, according to Bharrat Jagdeo, Guyana’s president. “Europe negotiated in bad faith. We were bullied into this.”
Chronology - CARIFORUM/EPA agreement
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