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Caribbean

Commentary: After a year of the EPA with Europe: What benefits for the Caribbean?
16-Apr-2010 Caribbean Net News
Even though Caribbean countries and the EU are supposed to be ‘partners’ under the EPA, the EC has denounced the Sugar Protocol causing Caribbean countries to lose their preferential price for sugar; the EC has agreed a new trade regime for bananas with exports from non African, Caribbean and Pacific countries that will decimate what is left of the banana industry in the Caribbean; and come June 20, the EC will renege on an undertaking to the Caribbean rum industry to help finance restructuring and marketing while at the same time reducing tariffs on competing rum from several Latin American countries.
Caribbean questions EU development pledges
9-Apr-2010 IPS
When Caribbean leaders sit across the table from their European counterparts at a May summit in Spain, high on their agenda will be the problems experienced by banana and sugar producers in gaining meaningful access to the European market.
Europe losing Caribbean’s support
16-Mar-2010 Fresh Plaza
The European Commission has made new trade concessions to Colombia, Peru and Central America on sugar, rice, bananas and rum that may well provoke a Caribbean protest — indeed, a turning away
ACP countries: Sidelined by Europe again?
27-Nov-2009 Carbbean Net News
The European Union (EU) has not included in the Lisbon Treaty a crucial article that was a feature of treaties between the EU and African Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) states.
EPA lessons and Canadian FTA
27-May-2009 Norman Girvan
Lessons from the EU-Caribbean FTA negotiating process in view of a possible Canada-CARICOM FTA, by Norman Girvan
EPA forum for businesses to take place in Kingston
9-Apr-2009
As the global marketplace becomes more anaemic, the Caribbean Council will next month host a forum aimed at improving private businesses’ understanding of how the Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA) will be implemented.
World Bank says preferential deals don’t help regional performance
4-Apr-2009
The World Bank says favourable treatment offered by Europe and North America has not helped the Caribbean’s overall trade performance.
EU partnership accord with the Caribbean: green light from MEPs, with conditions
25-Feb-2009 EP
The European Parliament should gives its assent to the economic partnership agreement between the Cariforum states and the EU, provided that undertakings are given by the Commission and Council for a review clause and that extra aid for trade is included
Jamaica could become regional economic hub under EPA
14-Feb-2009
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).
Financial regime change? by Robert Wade - A comment
2-Feb-2009 Norman Girvan
In an article titled “Financial Regime Change” published in New Left Review, September-October 2008, Robert Wade has made a number of points which have salience in the context of the CARIFORUM-EU Economic Partnership Agreement
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.