The Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA) between the Cariforum Countries (Caricom member states and the Dominican Republic) and the European Union (EU) is expected to result in high adjustment costs for Dominica and the rest of the region, according to one local official.
EPA Coordinator Yvanette Baron-George told a conference on that partnership agreement on Monday, that these adjustments would be required in several areas including trade facilitation, regulatory mechanisms and institutional frameworks, certification processes and fiscal adjustments.
However she emphasized that the controversial EPA which continues to draw criticism across the region, provides “an opportunity for us to to sell our goods and services outside the region, thus increasing our economic output”.
The Roseau conference is expected to assist Dominica better prepare for implementation of the EPA, which took effect at a regional level in December of 2008.
African Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) countries which lost some of their preferential market access (especially in the area of bananas), have had to sign EPAs with the European Union, an agreement that calls for reciprocal trade arrangements in a number of areas.
The Caribbean region was one of the first to sign up to the EPA, prompting criticism that it had rushed into the arrangement without ensuring that it obtained the best possible deal out of the pact.
According to Baron-George, the EPA is expected to enhance trade between the two sides, in the case of the region between the Cariforum states and the European Union.
One of the areas that allows for reciprocal trade is in the services sector.
Despite concerns held by some observers, there is optimism.
“Regional experts forecast that the Caribbean EPA will generate most of the future growth in the region’s service sector and creative industries such as music and film making,” Carleen Roberts, the National Authorizing Officer for the EU Development Fund told the seminar.
She also indicated that the pact is intended to promote regional integration and other aspects of trade integration.
The EPA seminar here heard from other officials that the agreement is a trade partnership intended to enhance sustainable development.
They were told that while the EU is the main trading partner of most ACP countries, these states accounted for only 2.9 per cent of the EU’s foreign trade, with that trade concentrated on a very small number of products, primarily bananas.
thousands of years since Columbus and Caribbean people still being fooled by shiny stones and trinkets
Once these consultants start to define the role of these foreign institutions, it always seems they have lost their caribbean identity in order to promote the interest of foreign countries,
Tell us in tangible areas how the small countries will benefit under EPA.
Such pronouncements remain vague simply because they are geared to fool us by using familiar faces to blind us.
The Eu has no interest in developing small states. It is all about maintaining their super power status in the world.
MANY CONSULTANTS ARE GIVEN BIG PAY CHECKS SIMPLY BECAUSE THEY ARE THE TOOLS FOR ENSURING MENTAL AND ECONOMIC OPPRESSION