Factsheet: How the EU is putting the EPA into practice 

 

 

Contents 

Introduction………………………………………………………………………………… ……………………3  

1 The CARIFORUM-EU EPA in a nutshell……………………………………………… 3

2 Putting the EPA to work for people and businesses……………………… 5

2.1 Supporting Caribbean governments

2.2 Holding both regions to account

2.3 Helping Caribbean businesses

3 Useful links………………………………………………………………………………………………9 

Go to top

---

Introduction 

This is a critical time for the Caribbean economy, just as it is for Europe's. To continue to grow, the region must become more competitive and productive. To do that it must create more higher-skilled jobs. It must attract more outside investment. And it must move up the value chain, relying less on exports of traditional commodities like sugar and bananas, and instead developing the service industries which characterise modern economies. That's precisely where the CARIFORUMEU EPA comes in. 

1. The CARIFORUM-EU EPA in a nutshell 

The EPA is the trade and development partnership signed in 2008 by the 15 states of CARIFORUM and the EU's 28 countries. Our goals are simple: to make it easier for people and businesses from our two regions to invest in and trade with each other, and to spur development across the Caribbean. As such, the agreement does four important things. Firstly, the EPA creates a more equal partnership. Ever since the EU's inception in 1958, the rules governing trade between our two regions had meant only the Caribbean enjoyed preferential access to the EU. The Caribbean didn’t have to open its market in any way to the EU. Now, both sides now have obligations as well as rights - as in any free trade agreement. Each region opens its market to the other, and reaps the benefits. However, the EPA also reflects our two regions' stages of development. It does so by being 'asymmetric'. In other words, the agreement requires the EU to go much further than the Caribbean. It also makes much lighter demands on Caribbean states than standard free trade agreements. In fact, the EU offers Caribbean states 100% duty- and quota-free access for all goods from day one. But Caribbean states have up to 25 years (until 2033) to cut import tariffs. They have excluded from these cuts around 17% of goods and services which they consider sensitive. And they can respond if EU imports suddenly surge and threaten local production. In addition, the EPA covers trade in its widest sense. Before, the rules governing CaribbeanEU trade had been mostly limited to goods. Now, the EPA covers trade not just in goods, but also in services. It also covers other areas where rules and regulations can hinder trade: competition, innovation and intellectual property, public procurement, and environmental and labour standards. Finally, the EPA supports the region's integration process. In fact, this process is the very basis of the EPA. In the accord, CARIFORUM states have committed to offering each other the same preferences they give the EU. And between 2014 and 2020 the EU is providing over €346 million to several region-wide bodies. These bodies will help the region to implement the EPA and thereby to export more and to attract more investment from overseas.

Countries which are part of the CARIFORUM-EU EPA

CARIFORUM (15)

Antigua and Barbuda

Bahamas

Barbados

Belize 

Dominica

 Dominican Republic

 Grenada

Guyana

Haiti

Jamaica

Saint Lucia

Saint Vincent and the Grenadines

Trinidad and Tobago

Saint Kitts and Nevis

Suriname

EU (28)

Austria

Belgium

Bulgaria

Cyprus

Czech Republic

Denmark

Estonia

Finland

France

Germany

Greece

Hungary

Ireland

Italy

Latvia

Lithuania

Luxembourg

Malta

Netherlands

Poland

Portugal

Romania

Slovakia

Slovenia

Spain

Sweden

United Kingdom

Croatia

Go to top

---

2. Putting the EPA into practice 

Implementing the EPA was never going to be easy. Caribbean businesses and governments have only limited resources and expertise. And the EPA is wide-ranging and covers complex topics. But both the Caribbean and the EU are keen to ensure it delivers positive results. Since it was signed in October 2008, the EU has been working with its Caribbean partners in three ways to put the agreement into practice. 

2.1. Supporting Caribbean governments and organisations

The first way in which the EU is working to implement the EPA is by helping Caribbean governments to fulfill their commitments.

We're doing this in three main ways.

Firstly, the EU is funding EPA implementation structures throughout the Caribbean.

These are based in national trade ministries, and in the CARIFORUM Directorate at the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) Secretariat. The Directorate serves all 15 CARIFORUM States - the 14 CARICOM countries plus the Dominican Republic (DR).

Their work includes, for example, planning and coordinating implementation; help with updating or drafting from scratch the rules and regulations governing trade, investment, and other business activities; or reorganizing the agencies that enforce those rules.

Secondly, the EU is funding on EPA programmes for governments and businesses since 2012.

We've teamed up with several Caribbean and international bodies with the technical expertise Caribbean governments have asked for, to help them:

• modernise the way they raise taxes and collect statistics;  help businesses meet EU health, safety and environmental standards;
•  diversify their economies by supporting the growth of their services sectors.

Thirdly, the EU is investing to help governments to integrate in other ways:

•  across CARICOM: by creating a Single Market and Economy (CSME);
•  in the DR and Haiti: by fostering closer cooperating between the two;
•  in the Eastern Caribbean: by pursuing closer integration.

The EU is also funding similar work through its country-specific programmes.

This support is already yielding results. For example:

• all states have EPA coordinators and structures in place;
•  almost all states have implemented the first rounds of tariff cuts in 2011 and 2013, 2015 and 2017 as agreed in the EPA; 
•  work is underway to strengthen CROSQ, a regional standards body, and CAHFSA, a regional food safety agency set up in 2010

2.2. Holding both regions to account 

The second way in which the EU has helped to put the EPA into practice is by working with our Caribbean partners to set up several new, joint Caribbean-European institutions. These bodies are intended to monitor the ways in which both regions put the agreement into practice. They are also intended to ensure the EPA delivers positive results, and to resolve any problems if they arise. All of these joint institutions have already met several times since October 2008.

2.3. Helping Caribbean businesses

The third way in which the EU is helping to put the EPA into practice is through our partnership with Caribbean Export, a Caribbean-wide agency promoting trade and investment across the region. We're funding programmes to help Caribbean Export work closely with Caribbean companies, so they can make use of the EPA to develop their production and export more, both to other Caribbean countries and to the EU. The agency also works with the EU's Outermost Regions (ORs) and Overseas Countries and Territories (OCTs) in the Caribbean, to spur trade between them and the rest of the region.

 The EU is also helping businesses from the Caribbean and other developing regions to export more to the EU through the EU Export Helpdesk: www.exporthelp.europa.eu

Go to top

---

3. Useful links 

For Caribbean businesspeople 

•  EU Export Helpdesk, a one-stop shop for information on exporting to the EU: www.exporthelp.europa.eu 

• Caribbean Export, a region-wide agency promoting trade and investment: www.carib-export.com 

•  Centre for the Development of Enterprise (CDE), which helps Caribbean businesses to become more competitive: www.cde.int

 EU delegations in the Caribbean: > In English: Serving Bahamas, Belize, Jamaica: www.eeas.europa.eu/delegations/jamaica

Serving Barbados and the Eastern Caribbean: www.eeas.europa.eu/delegations/barbad os

 Serving Guyana, Suriname, and Trinidad and Tobago: www.eeas.europa.eu/delegations/guyana 

> In Spanish: Serving the Dominican Republic: www.eeas.europa.eu/delegations/dominic an 

> In French: Serving Haiti: www.eeas.europa.eu/delegations/haiti 

•  Short presentations – on the EPA's benefits to: - Caribbean businesses in general - specific Caribbean industries: www.trade.ec.europa.eu/doclib/press/ind ex.cfm?id=701 

For EU businesspeople

  Caribbean Association of Investment Promotion Agencies (CAIPA): www.caipainvest.org

 Includes links to all 15 CARIFORUM States' investment promotion agencies.

For other EPA stakeholders

•  CARIFORUM-EU Parliamentary Committee: www.europarl.europa.eu/delegations/en/ dcar

•  CARIFORUM-EU Consultative Committee, the voice of civil society: http://portal2.eesc.europa.eu/cariforumeu/Pages/Welcome.aspx

For more EPA details and news 

•  The European Commission's dedicated EPA webpage: www.ec.europa.eu/trade/wideragenda/development/economicpartnerships/negotiations-andagreements/#_caribbean Includes links to factsheets and presentations.

•   The CARICOM Secretariat's EPA Implementation Unit:

www.caricom.org/jsp/community_organs /epa_unit 

•  First five-yearly review of the EPA: 

http://ec.europa.eu/trade/policy/countrie s-and-regions/regions/caribbean/

Go to top