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CARIFORUM EPA With EU Is Finally To Be Signed,
by Ulrika Lomas, Tax-News.com, Brussels
Tuesday, October 14, 2008
Wednesday will see the signing in Barbados of the Economic Partnership Agreement
between CARIFORUM and the European Union, which has been in the making since
2004 under the terms of the Cotonau Agreement.
The EPA was initialled last December; since then the member countries of CARIFORUM
have been in a huddle with themselves, some of them agonizing until the last
minute as to whether they really, really wanted the agreement. It was originally
supposed to have been signed in July.
CARIFORUM consists of Antigua and Barbuda, Bahamas, Barbados, Belize, Dominica,
the Dominican Republic, Grenada, Guyana, Haiti, Jamaica, Saint Lucia, Saint
Vincent and the Grenadines, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Suriname, and Trinidad and
Tobago.
Said Donville Inniss, Minister of State in the Barbados Ministry of Foreign
Affairs, Foreign Trade and International Business: “I want the message
to go forth quite clearly that the EU-CARIFORUM EPA signing ceremony will take
place in Barbados next Wednesday, October 15. The invitations have already gone
out to our CARIFORUM partners and to our EU partners and we expect that all
countries involved will be adequately represented at the signing ceremony next
Wednesday."
"We don’t want any ambiguity about it,” he stressed. The
Minister added that, while not perfect, the EPA is the best that could have
been achieved, and should not be delayed any further.
In fact, the EPA was something of an achievement for Peter Mandelson, EU Trade
Commissioner, who finally secured agreement to EPAs with the ACP countries from
all 27 EU member states only after a rancorous and long-drawn-out negotiation.
The EPA will give CARIFORUM states free access to the member states of
the EU for their goods exports, in return for opening their own markets to the
EU after transition periods of up to 25 years. The EPA covers trade in goods,
services and investments, and provides for development assistance to CARIFORUM
countries.
The coverage of goods liberalised by CARIFORUM countries under this Agreement
amounts to 61.1% of CARIFORUM imports from the EU in value over 10 years, 82.7%
over 15 years (84.7% of tariff lines) and 86.9% over 25 years (90.2% of tariff
lines).
Much is made of wording in the EPA committing the parties to achieving sustainable
development through capacity building measures and increased investment. The
EPA reaffirms a commitment to the use of international environment standards,
taking account of scientific information, respect for the precautionary principle,
and transparency, and to core labour standards as incorporated in the 1998 International
Labour Organisation declaration on Fundamental Principles and Rights of Work
and the United Nations declaration on Full Employment and Decent Work.
For all products originating in CARIFORUM countries and exported to the EU
(other than rice and sugar), the Agreement has brought about a Duty and Quota
Free Access (DFQF) regime as from 1 January 2008. This is a major improvement
compared to the preferential treatment granted under the Cotonou Agreement for
some agricultural products, in particular for bananas. Access for CARIFORUM
rice will be DFQF after a transition period of 2 years ending on 31 December
2009. In 2008 and 2009 the rice quota will be 187,000 tonnes and 250,000 tonnes,
compared to the former quota of 125,000 tonnes. The in-quota duty will be eliminated.
For sugar, access will be DFQF as from 1 October 2009, subject to a transitional
automatic safeguard mechanism until 30 September 2015. For the period from 1
October 2008 to 30 September 2009, while the Sugar Protocol remains in force,
a quantity of 60,000 tonnes of sugar at zero duty (additional to the quantities
under the Sugar Protocol) has been granted to CARIFORUM countries. 30,000 tonnes
of this tariff rate quota have been reserved for the Dominican Republic which
has so far had no preferential access under the Sugar Protocol.
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