News on Caricom

12 August 2008 - Stabroek News

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.

A third date for the signing ceremony for the full Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA) between the European Union, the Caribbean Community plus the Dominican Republic has been announced for 2 September in Barbados, as reported by the Nation News, Barbados' leading newspaper. The agreement involves 15 Caribbean states and 27 European Union countries.
The Nation News attributes the second postponement to internal differences among labor unions, non-government organizations and parliament in several Caribbean Community countries to the signing of the agreement in its present form.
As reported in the Nation News of Barbados: "Just last Wednesday, Sir Shridath Ramphal, the former chairman of The West Indian Commission and first Chief Negotiator of the Caribbean Regional Negotiating Machinery (CRNM), argued in an interview with the Caribbean Media Corporation (CMC) that it was 'not too late' for the Caribbean to pull out of the EPA as the European themselves were now examining "flaws in the accord", and that precedents existed for a reasonable pause for serious review."
http://www.nationnews.com/editorial/292265215855613.php

The Institutional Program for Regional Integration (ISPRI) was officially launched during a ceremony at the Hotel Santo Domingo yesterday. The ISPRI will work for the next two years to help the DR transition into the recently signed EPA signed between CARIFORUM and the EU. The ISPRI will have a EUR6 million budget. Of the EUR6 million, EUR5 million comes from the EU Commission while EUR1 million comes from the Dominican government. The ISPRI will cooperate with the Foreign Trade Department (DICOEX) at the Ministry of Industry and Commerce, the Committee for Commercial Negotiations (CNNC) and the European Funds National Authorizing Office (ONFED).
For more details on the EPA click here: www.dr1.com/trade

26 June 2008 - DR1 Daily 

David Jessop, executive director of the Caribbean Council, says that the DR stands to gain from the provision in the European Partnership Agreement that opens inter-Caribbean trade. Once the European Partnership Agreement (EPA) is signed in July, he says Dominican business community will benefit from the stipulation that any trade preference granted by one Caricom member to all other signatories, the DR included. He explains this would accomplish the integration of the DR's economy with that of the smaller nations in the English-speaking Caribbean.
Dominicans hope the implementation of the EPA will give the country, after a short transition period, access to markets in the English-speaking Caribbean for the first time. Dominican manufacturers have long been complaining about obstacles Caricom countries have placed to completing the Caricom-DR Free Trade Agreement, to facilitate increased trade in the region. For the DR, the implementation of EPA is a way of getting around the obstacles.
Nevertheless, Jessop says that some island leaders, such as Jamaica's Prime Minister Brice Golding continue to insist on urging European counterparts to maintain the issue of differential treatment for the poorer countries of the region under the EPA, despite the treaty ruling against this asymmetry.
Regardless, Jessop writes that the EPA places the DR business community in a unique position in the Western Hemisphere to make the most of the economies of scale that arise from having a large and viable domestic market, as well as developing trade across its land border in Haiti, together with the possibility of producing goods and providing services for the world's two most wealthy markets, the US and the EU.
The Caribbean Council is a London-based international organization that assists the development of the Caribbean through the promotion of the region's interests internationally and by encouraging new and increased trade and investment with Caribbean countries.

27 May 2008 - DR1 Daily News

Economist Roberto Despradel encourages Dominican exporters to take advantage of its geographic position to export to the Greater Caribbean marketplace. In a feature in El Caribe today, he comments how the area covers 25 countries of varying size, each with their own pecularities.
From the larger Central American nations to the tiny Leeward and Windward Islands, all are open to trade with the Dominican Republic, thanks to a series of agreements that date back ten years or more. Currently, Puerto Rico, Haiti and Central America represent close to 50% of all Dominican export markets.

02 June 2008 - DR1 Daily News 

03 April 2008 - Caribbean Regional Negotiating Machinery

BRIDGETOWN, BARBADOS The legal scrub of the CARIFORUM- EC Economic Partnership Agreement has been completed. As a consequence the Text has been authorized by Heads of CARIFORUM for official release.

Commenting on the official release, Caribbean Regional Negotiating Machinery (CRNM) Director-General Ambassador Richard Bernal said,

“The Text that has been released reflects the result of the legal scrub which was a verification process that checked the Agreement for errors and consistency in use of terminology.”

“The Text has been distributed to Member States where a process of legal review has been inaugurated to ensure consistency between the EPA and domestic laws. When that process has been completed, the respective Cabinets can confer authority to a Minister to sign the EPA.”

It was previously agreed that signature of the EPA text would take place in April. However, this will no longer be possible. As the Director-General explained, “The legal scrub has taken longer than was anticipated. It is necessary therefore to allow Member States enough time to complete their legal review of the text. Meanwhile, the European Commission will be completing their internal process of translating the EPA text into all of the official languages. Additionally, the College of Commissioners will be seeking the authority of the EU General Council to sign the Agreement.”

Signing by the EC and all the participating CARIFORUM Member States must occur before provisional application can be activated. The CARIFORUM Heads have committed themselves to take the necessary steps to complete their internal review processes in a timely manner to facilitate signature and provisional application of the Agreement by 30 June 2008.  

Source: Caribbean Regional Negotiating Machinery

The European Union, under the newly signed Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA) will guarantee preferential treatment for the DR for 30,000 metric tons of its sugar. EU country spokesman Jonathan Pitts said that the DR has become extremely competitive in the area of sugar. The CARICOM block, as part of the agreement, will have preferential treatment for a total of 60,000 metric tons of its sugar, of which 30,000 metric tons has been reserved for the DR.

01 February 2008 - DR1 Daily News

Foreign Relations Minister Carlos Morales Troncoso says the agreement signed on 16 December with the European Union is the most modern ever negotiated, and the most innovative, as it covers goods, services, investments and people mobility. The new agreement will enter into effect on 1 January 2008 for Dominican exports to Europe. The papers won't be signed until the European Union's regional summit in Barbados on 15 March.
The agreement will permit Dominican products such as bananas and tobacco to enter the EU without tariffs and quotas. Sugar, however, will be limited to 30,000 tons in 2008 and 2009. The Caribbean nations will begin to apply the agreement's protocols on 15 April. The accord also provides for "an alternate migration plan" whereby European companies can hire professional, technical or qualified personnel for up to six months of work. On the financial level, according to Morales, the agreement provides for financial guarantees for investments coming from the EU as long as Dominican investments receive the same treatment in the EU countries. Morales also revealed that the EU would be assisting the Dominican Republic with programs for competitiveness (EUR80/US$120 million) and development (US$169 million) over the 2008-2013 period.
Morales Troncoso stressed that this is the first agreement to completely liberalize trade. It enables Caribbean countries to exclude certain products, it allows for the use of inputs from any country for apparel manufacture, footwear or pharmaceuticals for export to Europe. It is also the first to prohibit and repress corruption and violation of labor and environmental laws by investors. Furthermore, it is the first to include rules on travel and is the first to put into practice the UNESCO convention for the promotion and protection of cultural diversity, through a cultural cooperation protocol. The agreement is also the first to require that Caribbean countries grant themselves what they have granted to Europe, making true Caribbean integration a reality. Morales pointed out that the agreement integrates Haiti in a free trade agreement with the Dominican Republic.
The agreement is also the first to provide for safeguards lasting up to eight years for product trade protection. It is also the first time that a group of developed countries liberalizes the movement of people, opening their markets, without quotas to doctors, nurses, lawyers, consultants and other trade providers from the Caribbean.
Signatory countries are Antigua and Barbuda, Barbados, Belize, Dominica, Grenada, Guyana, Jamaica, St. Kitts & Nevis, St. Lucia, St Vincent and the Grenadines, Suriname, Trinidad & Tobago and the Dominican Republic. Participating parties for the European Union are Belgium, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Germany, Estonia, Greece, Spain, France, Ireland, Italy, Cyprus, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxemburg, Hungary, Malta, Netherlands, Australia, Poland, Portugal, Slovenia, Slovakia, Finland, Sweden, the UK, Bulgaria and Romania.
http://dr1.com/trade/articles/426/1/Full-Text-of-the-EPA-Agreement/Page1.html

19 December 2007 - DR1 Daily News 

The Dominican Republic will benefit from aspects of regional preference that were introduced in the European Partnership Agreement between the European Union and Caricom and the Dominican Republic completed on 16 December 2007, in time for the 1 January 2008 implementation date. According to Ivan Ogando at the Ministry of Foreign Relations, the EPA will also facilitate the export of Dominican products to Caricom countries, far beyond what the FTA with Caricom had accomplished. The new agreement replaces the Cotonou Agreement that expires at the end of this year.
Ambassador Richard Bernal, chief negotiator for the Caribbean, described the EPA as historic in terms of content and precedent.
"It will promote and deepen the economic ties between the two longest running integration processes in the world. It will enhance our trade in goods because the European Union is providing duty-free, quota-free access and we are liberalizing access to our market," he told a media conference on Sunday.
Interestingly, the agreement includes a provision that gives citizens of the Caribbean access to Europe's entertainment services market, for instance. "This is a very, very difficult concession for Europe. It allows musical performers and artistes to move into Europe to present their talent and to seize business opportunities. This is a novelty that was very difficult to achieve," said Deputy Director General for Trade of the EU Commission, Karl Falkenberg, who signed the document for the EU, told CANANews. The Caribbean Regional Negotiations Machinery office says that while the culmination of this negotiation process has come later than previously scheduled, CARIFORUM countries, by completing the EPA before the end of the year, have ensured that their product exports to the EU will not have to face Generalized System of Preferences (GSP) treatment or face Most Favored Nation (MFN) duties in 2008. As of 1 January 2008, with a temporary exception for rice and sugar, all CARIFORUM goods will be entitled to duty-free and quota-free access to the European Union. Importantly, CARIFORUM is the first group within the ACP to clinch a comprehensive agreement that covers not just goods but services, investment, and trade related issues such as innovation and intellectual property.
The major elements of the agreement concluded between the European Community and Cariforum countries are as follows:
1. Cariforum liberalizing 86.9% with 82.7% within the first 15 years. The agreement will result in the liberalization of 92% of Cariforum-EC trade;
2. A general moratorium of three years on all tariff lines except motor vehicles and parts and gasoline that will benefit from a 10-year grace period;
3. Other duties and charges are to be maintained during the first seven years and then phased out in years 8, 9 and 10.
4. In addition to the SP quotas, a transitional TRQ of 60,000 tonnes split evenly between CARIFORUM SP members and the Dominican Republic. In addition, a joint commitment to ensure that shortfalls of any CARIFORUM SP member will be reallocated to another CARIFORUM SP member;
5. Award of MFN treatment to major trading partner defined as countries garnering 1% and 1.5% of world merchandise exports and services.
6. In services, CARIFORUM LDCs and MDCs have committed to 65 and 75% respective sectorial coverage with a standstill clause and provisions for future liberalization. BAH and HAI will submit their respective liberalization schedules in six months;
7. CARIFORUM CSS in entertainment services will enjoy access without any restrictions in all EU Member States with the exception of Austria and Germany;
8. Joint Declarations on Development Cooperation, Bananas, Sugar Allocation and Traditional Agricultural Products; The JD on Development Cooperation includes a commitment to channel EPA support through the CARICOM Development Fund.
9. Regional preference to be awarded one, two and five years in the case of CARIFORUM MDCs, LDCs and Haiti, respectively.
10. The Trade Partnership for Sustainable Development (Development Chapter) includes support for infrastructure while the preamble of the Agreement states that full account should be taken of the CARICOM Development Vision.
The next step is agreement at the EU Council meeting of December 20 for the insertion of 15 CARIFORUM States in the EC Regulation that allows for the unilateral conferral of the EC market access offer from 1 January 2008.
For more information, see the Caribbean Regional Negotiating Machinery site at www.crnm.org

18 December 2007 - DR1 Daily News 

After three and-a-half years of stressful negotiations, the Caribbean and European negotiating teams have concluded the first Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA). Both parties completed the massive task around 1:30am on Sunday, 16 December at the Grand Barbados Hotel in Bridgetown, Barbados.
As of January 2008 all exports in goods and services originating from within the Cariforum countries (CARICOM plus DR) will receive duty-free and quota-free access in Europe. Eighty percent of the goods produced in Europe will receive duty free access to the Caribbean markets within the next 15 years.
Hugo Ramirez Risk, former Director of Trade Negotiations for the DR, who witnessed the round that took place in Bridgetown, from Wednesday to Sunday last week, indicates that non-discriminatory access with respect to the region's culture industries, including the performing arts and writers, one of the major sticking points in the negotiations on services, was finally overcome late the last night of the round with a commitment offered by 25 of the EU's 27 member states.
"What makes this development all the more significant is the fact that the Caribbean has emerged as the first of the African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) countries to finalize an EPA arrangement with the European Union," he reports.
"The reaffirmed mandate by CARIFORUM's negotiators was to conclude the most beneficial and complete accord possible in preference to securing a market access arrangement by the 31 December 2007 deadline, and so the DR did. By 2010, all vital exports will be eligible for duty-free and quota-free access to Europe's market," he explained.
With respect to Caribbean sugar exports, Ramirez Risk explains that the agreement is that Caricom sugar producers will gain an additional 30,000 tons on top of current allocations while the DR is to benefit from a separate 30,000 tons, but only until 9 September 2009.
The EPA arrangements concluded in Barbados are to be submitted to the EU Council on Thursday this week, for the insertion of the 15 Cariforum countries in the European Commission's regulations to permit unhindered access to Europe's market from January 1st 2008.

17 December 2007 - DR1 Daily News