http://dr1.com/trade en-us N/A robert@dr1.com Wed, 20 Aug 2008 16:10:45 EDT 20 http://dr1.com/trade/articles/775/1/SIGNING-ON/Page1.html
BARBADOS' POSITION IS CLEAR. It will be signing the European Partnership Agreement (EPA) on September 2, with or without the other CARICOM countries.

Minister of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade Chris Sinckler said he has received no official word from any other Caribbean countries stating that they are not signing, but he too had heard the "conflicting commentaries" about the countries and their reservations.

"Our position is clear on this. We are proceeding to the signing of the EPA on the second of September 2008," the minister told a Press conference yesterday.

"Barbados has not to date received any official notification from any government in the CARICOM or the CARIFORUM – and that would include Dominican Republic that has formallly indicated that they will not be present at the signing or that they will not sign the agreement."
]]> no@spam.com (Lu Olivero) Wed, 20 Aug 2008 14:00:49 EDT http://dr1.com/trade/articles/775/1/SIGNING-ON/Page1.html http://dr1.com/trade/articles/774/1/CARICOM-hopes-to-renegotiate-EPA/Page1.html
PORT-OF-SPAIN, Trinidad (CMC) – Caribbean Community (CARICOM) countries will sign the Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA) with Europe on 2 Sept., as planned, but they are still hoping to renegotiate the deal afterward, CARICOM Chairman Baldwin Spencer has said.

Spencer, who is also the prime minister of Antigua and Barbuda, told reporters it is likely the agreement hammered out last year between Europe and the Caribbean Forum (CARIFORUM) which includes CARICOM and the Dominican Republic, would be signed by individual countries on that date.
]]> no@spam.com (Lu Olivero) Wed, 20 Aug 2008 13:58:34 EDT http://dr1.com/trade/articles/774/1/CARICOM-hopes-to-renegotiate-EPA/Page1.html http://dr1.com/trade/articles/773/1/Trinidadian-Minister-Speaks-on-EPA/Page1.html
"Our view is that the EPA replaces a state of insecurity with the assurance of market access".  That's the message coming from Norris Herbert, Assistant Director, Trade Promotion and Development in the Ministry of Trade and Industry on one of the advantages of the Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA). Herbert and Ramesh Sarabjit, Senior Economist at the Ministry of Trade and Industry, were guests on a Trinidad morning television programme recently when Herbert identified the difference EPA brought to trade in both goods and services for T&T.
]]> no@spam.com (Lu Olivero) Mon, 18 Aug 2008 10:47:57 EDT http://dr1.com/trade/articles/773/1/Trinidadian-Minister-Speaks-on-EPA/Page1.html http://dr1.com/trade/articles/772/1/The-EPA-explained/Page1.html
When a Barbadia exchanges cash for a specific product being sold by a merchant, that transaction is a trade.

If the two agree to transactions over an extended period, usually with special conditions that favour one or both parties, they can be said to have a trading arrangement.

Over time, however, in order to ensure "a level playing field for all", Government has introduced legislation and regulations to control such arrangements. Hence, the Fair Trading Commission (FTC).

Similarly, when governments buy and sell goods and invest at an international level, they are entering into trade arrangements.

The Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA) which has been very much in the news recently is one such arrangement.
]]> no@spam.com (Lu Olivero) Mon, 18 Aug 2008 10:41:19 EDT http://dr1.com/trade/articles/772/1/The-EPA-explained/Page1.html http://dr1.com/trade/articles/764/1/Deferring-of-EPA-signing-on-the-horizon/Page1.html
As Guyana prepares to hold a series of national focus groups consultations on the Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA) that Cariforum countries are scheduled to seal with the European Union in the near future there are signals that there may be a deferral of the signing.
Henry Gill

Stabroek News has learnt that even as Cariforum, which comprises the Dominican Republic and Caricom, and the European Union are moving towards the September 2 signing of the EPA in Brussels, Belgium where the EU Parliament is located, there are indications that it might be postponed to later in the year or even next year.
]]> no@spam.com (Lu Olivero) Tue, 12 Aug 2008 14:04:55 EDT http://dr1.com/trade/articles/764/1/Deferring-of-EPA-signing-on-the-horizon/Page1.html http://dr1.com/trade/articles/758/1/Conflicts-with-the-EPA/Page1.html ]]> no@spam.com (Lu Olivero) Fri, 08 Aug 2008 14:06:55 EDT http://dr1.com/trade/articles/758/1/Conflicts-with-the-EPA/Page1.html http://dr1.com/trade/articles/757/1/quotThey-failed-isquot/Page1.html
That's what governments, intellectuals and trade unions in CARIFORUM (CARICOM and the Dominican Republic) who negotiated the Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA) with the European Union (EU) did to this region, says James Paul, of the Barbados Agricultural Society (BAS).

Paul, a Government backbencher and chief executive officer of BAS, yesterday chastised regional stakeholders responsible for brokering the deal.

He was speaking at a CARIFORUM-EU EPA review meeting hosted by the Barbados Manufacturers' Association (BMA) at Sherbourne Conference Centre.

The Member of Parliament for St Michael West Central urged participants to "understand that in this whole negotiation process our governments failed us, our intellectuals failed us and our unions failed us because we were prepared to sit down and listen to the garbage coming out of Europe about free trade without really examining what they were doing".

He said the EU continued to heavily subsidise their agricultural sector, while regional governments were tight-fisted with their farmers.

"We seem to have a kind of reluctance on the part of the state to help out ailing industries, flagship industries that make a difference to our economies.
]]> no@spam.com (Lu Olivero) Fri, 08 Aug 2008 14:06:07 EDT http://dr1.com/trade/articles/757/1/quotThey-failed-isquot/Page1.html http://dr1.com/trade/articles/756/1/ACP-solidarity-still-strong/Page1.html
Henry Gill, Director General of the Caribbean Regional Negotiating Machinery (RNM) has dismissed suggestions that by agreeing to a separate Economic Partnership Agreement with Europe the Caribbean did not show solidarity with Africa and the Pacific.

Africa, the Pacific and the Caribbean make up the ACP group which is linked to the European Union by way of an economic pact known as the Cotonou Agreement.

Speaking to journalists at the RNMs Barbados office on Friday, Gill said that no one had come forward with the evidence to support the view that CARIFORUM, comprising the CARICOM and the Dominican Republic, had broken the ACP solidarity.
]]> no@spam.com (Lu Olivero) Tue, 05 Aug 2008 13:25:23 EDT http://dr1.com/trade/articles/756/1/ACP-solidarity-still-strong/Page1.html http://dr1.com/trade/articles/754/1/Gill-EPA-support-crucial/Page1.html
Guyana, or any other CARIFORUM (CARICOM and the Dominican Republic) country looking to back out of the Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA) with the European Union (EU), can muddy economic waters for all in the grouping.

Henry Gill – director-general of the Caribbean Regional Negotiating Machinery (CRNM), the CARICOM agency that is instrumental in negotiating external trade agreements on behalf of the region – says that if countries do not endorse the deal, they will not be sanctioned, but "if I'm correct, it means that this can hold up the entire process".

Last Friday he told reporters at CRNM headquarters in Hastings, Christ Church, "If a country does not sign, I'm afraid that the likelihood is that it will hold up the whole agreement because the way in which the documentation has been prepared for approval by the European Council, which is a council of ministers, is indicating which are the signatories of either party.
]]> no@spam.com (Lu Olivero) Mon, 04 Aug 2008 11:59:34 EDT http://dr1.com/trade/articles/754/1/Gill-EPA-support-crucial/Page1.html http://dr1.com/trade/articles/753/1/Sept-2-signing-of-EPA-now-uncertain/Page1.html
Having been postponed twice, an agreement for a signing ceremony was reached last week for the European Commission - the executive arm of the 27-member EU - to press ahead with the signing arrangements to be held in Barbados.
]]> no@spam.com (Lu Olivero) Fri, 01 Aug 2008 16:17:16 EDT http://dr1.com/trade/articles/753/1/Sept-2-signing-of-EPA-now-uncertain/Page1.html