DR1 - Articles - Articles on Trade with the Caribbean

The View from Europe: A Focus on Tourism

no@spam.com (Robert Woolford) — Mon, 24 Nov 2008 16:57:22 EST

24 November 2008 - David Jessop

As the global economic outlook darkens, the Caribbean tourism industry has begun to look closely at its revenue forecasts and how best to position itself to weather the storm that will affect negatively arrivals from the second quarter of 2009 onwards from all of its main markets.
Although bookings over the winter season and into February from the US, Canada and Europe are good, hoteliers are coming to believe that the impact of the global economic recession on the industry in the Caribbean will be severe. In doing so they ruefully make the point that it will finally if unfortunately demonstrate to Governments and electorates just how dependent the region has become on earnings from an industry that is still not widely understood or supported.

Caribbean tourism has of course experienced downturns in the past, but these occurred for the most part when the region’s economy was more broadly based. Then agriculture protected many Caribbean economies through the artificially high prices paid by Europe under preferential arrangements for commodities like sugar and bananas.

But today, despite the fact that there is still no accounting model for most nations or the region as a whole to indicate tourism’s true value, there is enough information available to suggest that any downturn will affect a wide range of economic activity in almost all Caribbean economies.
How tourism has come to permeate the Caribbean economy in this way ought to be the subject of contemporary economic history.

However, even without empirical evidence it is not hard to identify what a severe recession in the region’s primary markets might mean.
Visitors and what they spend now touch virtually every form of economic activity across the Caribbean. This means that it is no longer just the hotel owners or the employees who will suffer, but everyone from the accountant and lawyer to the beach vendor who makes a living from the industry. Moreover a recession touching tourism will have the dangerous slow burn effect of causing tax revenues and foreign exchange reserves to fall, making it more difficult for government to fund social and other programmes and by extension maintain present levels of employment in the public sector.

Changing leadership in CRNM

no@spam.com (Lu Olivero) — Tue, 06 May 2008 12:46:58 EDT

06 May 2008 - Rickey Singh

For all the current and earlier controversies it has attracted over the 11 yearsÂ of its existence, the Caribbean Regional Negotiating Machinery (CRNM) hasÂ clearly earned its reputation asÂ aÂ very valuable mechanism in this region's engagement with the international community.

AsÂ passionate debates continue over the pluses and minuses of theÂ concludedÂ Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA) between the European Union (EU) and the Caribbean Forum (CaricomÂ and Dominican Republic), there has come the announcement by Dr Richard Bernal ofÂ his resignationÂ as director general toÂ work with the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) as an alternative director for the Caribbean.

Bernal, a Jamaican, has been serving the CRNM, which has lead responsibility for trade negotiations, for almost six and half years as director general.

He had assumed that post following the departure of Sir Shridath Ramphal, whose immense reputation as a key regional player in the inauguration of the African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) group, had enabled him to give visionary leadership to the CRNM during its first four years.

PM again bats for EPA signed with Europe

no@spam.com (Lu Olivero) — Tue, 06 May 2008 12:37:56 EDT

03 May 2008 - Jamaica Observer

Prime Minister Bruce Golding has again sought to allay fears that CARIFORUM countries may have given up more than they will gain from the Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA) with the European Union.

Golding said the one-way preferential arrangement that existed under Lome could not continue indefinitely as it contravened World Trade Organization (WTO) rules.

The View from Europe

no@spam.com (Lu Olivero) — Mon, 14 Apr 2008 12:03:25 EDT

11 April 2008 - David Jessop

On April 7 in Port-au-Prince five people died when thousands of Haitians tried to storm the Presidential palace to protest against the high price of staples such as rice, corn, beans and cooking oil that in some cases had virtually doubled over the last six months. It was the Caribbean’s first food riot in living memory, albeit in the region’s poorest nation.

This troubling phenomena is happening across the world as basic food prices pass beyond the reach of ordinary people.

It is a development that could occur almost anywhere in the Caribbean if global demand continues to exceed supply, commodity prices continue to rise and hard-pressed governments reach the limit of their ability to subsidise basic foodstuffs.

In recent months the acceleration in food prices has been compounded by the turmoil in the financial markets. As both a source of energy and an ‘asset class’ for investors, food has become the subject of unbridled speculation. So much so that in just two weeks in April the price of rice for example rose by more than fifty per cent.

The seriousness of this and the challenge it presents to Caribbean growth and stability has not been well understood either within or beyond the region. Neither has the opportunity it offers those Caribbean nations with underutilised fertile land to give priority to incentivising farmers and the business sector to deliver a revolution in agriculture.

CHA reacts to recent Developments in EPA negotiations

no@spam.com (Lu Olivero) — Sat, 24 Nov 2007 13:40:50 EST

28 September 2007 – Caribbea Hotel Association

Responding to questions, Peter Odle, President of the Caribbean Hotel Association (CHA), expressed the organization’s extreme concern about the status of CARIFORUM-European Union negotiations towards the conclusion of an Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA) and, more specifically, the status of negotiations on the topic of tourism. “The European Union’s proposed ‘Non-Paper’ on Tourism is entirely inadequate and unacceptable,” said Odle, adding that CHA encourages CARIFORUM’s negotiators and all member states to continue to push for agreement on the CARIFORUM proposed tourism text, which has evolved out of the joint Caribbean Tourism Organization (CTO)/CHA position paper submitted to the Caribbean Regional Negotiating Machinery (CRNM) towards the end of 2006. The issue was brought up before the CHA President at the Caribbean Small Hotels Retreat, being held in Barbados from the 26 to the 28th of September.

EU decides to scrap Sugar Protocol with ACP countries

no@spam.com (Lu Olivero) — Sat, 24 Nov 2007 13:29:38 EST

30 September 2007 - raidiojamaica.com

Reports are now surfacing that the European Union (EU) Saturday decided to scrap the 32-year-old Sugar Protocol which has been the fulcrum of trade ties with sugar-producing countries.

Chairman of the All Island Jamaica Cane Farmers Association, Allan Rickards, says the African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) sugar-producing countries have until 2009 to get prepared for the renunciation.

Mr. Rickards says currently the EU and the ACP are in negotiations to replace the old protocol with new Economic Partnership Agreements, EPA's for each country.

"That protocol was signed off on by all ACP countries what is going to replace it is six different EPAs as the ACP countries are now divided into six different regions," said Mr. Rickards.

Haiti to Execute Code of Investment

no@spam.com (Lu Olivero) — Mon, 01 Oct 2007 14:37:38 EDT

1 October 2007 - Lindsay Thompson

Once a destination of choice in the Caribbean, Haiti is implementing a master plan – a Code of Investment – to attract foreign investors and tourists back to its picturesque mountainous terrains.
The 25-year plan calls for a multimillion-dollar road project, the creation of national parks, development of small and large resorts, upgraded airports, and making artwork a focal point of the tourism product.
The plan further calls for development throughout Haiti to encourage residents to live outside the city Port-au-Prince where more than two million Haitians live. Out of Haiti’s 8.5 million population, more than half (57%) are below 25-years-old.

EU's scrapping of sugar pact 'a slap in face', says Caribbean

no@spam.com (Lu Olivero) — Mon, 01 Oct 2007 14:34:42 EDT

01 October 2007 - Jamaican Observer - Ricjey Singh

Caribbean trade and political officials are fuming at the European Union's decision last Friday to scrap a 32-year-old agreement with African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) sugar-exporting countries, describing the action as "a slap in the face" of the region.

A leading Caricom official who preferred not to be named, said Saturday that it was "most insensitive" for the EU to have gone ahead with its earlier threat to terminate the sugar protocol on Friday, given that top EU representatives would be attending an emergency meeting with Caribbean leaders in a few days in Jamaica to grapple, "in good faith", with outstanding development and trade issues.

Those issues are the realisation of six regional Economic Partnership Agreements (EPAs) from 2009 for which intense negotiations have been taking place at technical, diplomatic and ministerial levels between the EU and ACP.

Regional hoteliers knock EU on EPA proposals

no@spam.com (Lu Olivero) — Mon, 01 Oct 2007 11:52:03 EDT

28 September 2007 - www.cbc.bb

Caribbean hoteliers have joined regional agriculturalists in expressing grave concern about the status of a new Economic Partnership Agreement which African Caribbean and Pacific States are negotiating with the European Union.
Caribbean Hotel Association President, Peter Odle, said partners in the vital foreign exchange earning sector were particularly concerned over the status of negotiations with regards to tourism and viewed the EU’s proposal to be “entirely inadequate and unacceptable”.

“Very generally, the CHA is dismayed that the EU is of the view that their one-page summarized document could adequately and fairly represent trading arrangements that will pertain between CARIFORUM (Caribbean Community and Dominican Republic) and the EU for the leading economic sector in the CARIFORUM region.

EU, Caribbean close to trade deal

no@spam.com (Lu Olivero) — Mon, 01 Oct 2007 11:50:10 EDT

29 September 2007 - Reuters

The European Union and Caribbean countries are close to a new trade and investment deal, trade officials said on Friday. EU Trade Commissioner Peter Mandelson plans to meet trade ministers from the Caribbean region in Jamaica on Oct. 4 and 5, ahead of a possible final deal on Oct. 15, the officials from both sides of the talks said.

“The basic text of the agreement is all there and it’s fairly comprehensive,” a EU official said. The EU has been negotiating the Economic Partnership Agreements (EPAs) for five years with groups of mostly former European colonies in the African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) regions.

Oxfam and other poverty campaign groups say the deals are damaging to the ACP countries and will expose their companies and farmers to fierce European competition.