Now also available as eBook, click
here to buy and download your copy
“This is the first volume in the series Guide to Free Trade Agreements,
edited by Stefano Inama.”
The CARIFORUM-EU Economic Partnership Agreement is a sui generis North-South
trade and development agreement. The C-EPA is a bi-regional agreement, signed
in Bridgetown, Barbados in October 2008, with the specific aim of supporting
the sustainable development of the Caribbean. As a paradigm changer in the
ACP-EU trade relationship, the C-EPA has unsurprisingly attracted considerable
attention. The long process of ratification by twenty-seven EU Member States
and fifteen Caribbean countries has begun, and implementation is advancing
after an initial delay.
This book is the first detailed analysis of the Agreement’s provisions,
including its negotiating history and prognosis of its future potential. It is
written by fifteen Caribbean and European practitioners, most of whom actively
contributed to the crafting of the Agreement as CARIFORUM or EU negotiators.
The contributions cover the following:
• charting a dual approach to CARIFORUM commitments at both regional and
national levels; • establishing an architecture of commitments that seeks to
support CARIFORUM regional integration; • safeguarding Caribbean preferential
access to the EU market; • broadening the ambit of the Caribbean-EU
relationship, as reflected in the Cotonou Agreement, into new trade
disciplines; • highlighting key drivers in the negotiations; • addressing the
CARICOM-Dominican Republic economic relationship; • examining the special
treatment of Haiti; and • reviewing the C-EPA’s compatibility with WTO rules.
The book will be welcomed by trade policy experts, lawyers, trade negotiators,
development experts, and other trade practitioners, as well as by academics in
the field. Although the particular analysis is of CARIFORUM-EU relations, few
will doubt that the issues addressed apply to trade relations in many other
parts of the world. The Agreement’s articulation of the EPA concept by its EU
and Caribbean negotiators is sure to inspire parallel regional arrangements
that are evolving elsewhere. The contributors’ detailed examination of the
C-EPA not only opens the way to improved understanding and sustained
implementation of that Agreement but also significantly assists in the
development of the global trade regime.
List of Contributors
List of Abbreviations
Foreword
Acknowledgements
Chapter 1 From Cotonou to Bridgetown: The Birth of the Caribbean EPA
Remco Vahl
Chapter 2 Realizing the Cotonou Blueprint through a
Development-Enhancing Agreement
Federico Alberto Cuello Camilo
Chapter 3 A Trade Partnership for Sustainable Development
Junior Lodge
Chapter 4 Trade in Goods: Full Liberalization in the EU
Ursula Hönich
Chapter 5 ‘Mix Up Matrimony’: Crafting a Common Caribbean Market Access
Offer
Sacha Silva
Chapter 6 Safeguard and Other Trade Defence Measures
Lothar Ehring
Chapter 7 Rules of Origin, Customs, and Trade Facilitation Issues
Stefano Inama
Chapter 8 Investment and Trade in Services
Ramesh Chaitoo
Chapter 9 Competition Policy
Audel Cunningham
Chapter 10 Innovation and Intellectual Property
Malcolm Spence
Chapter 11 The Economic Partnership Agreement and the Creative Sector:
Implications and Prospects for CARIFORUM
Keith Nurse
Chapter 12 Public Procurement
Audel Cunningham
Chapter 13 Environment, Social Aspects and Institutional Provisions
Americo Beviglia Zampetti
Chapter 14 Protection of Personal Data
Audel Cunningham
Chapter 15 Dispute Avoidance and Settlement
Colin M. Brown
Chapter 16 EPA WTO Compatibility: A View from a WTO Perspective
Anthony Peter Gonzales
Chapter 17 The Challenge of Sustainable Implementation
Richard L. Bernal
Index