The Lloyd Best Institute has announced the ‘Common Sense Convois’ to be held in Trinidad and Tobago March 18-25 2012, ‘a civic intervention designed to influence the shape of the next 50 years of the Caribbean and to network the region in a common conversation about the Caribbean and its future’.
“Haha, Ortega doesn’t know what he’s talking about, neither does Evo, they don’t know anything about crime, there are reports out there that know more,” said a journalist from Bloomberg to his colleague. The journalist was sitting next to me in the press tent set up outside the CELAC plenary sessions in the Patio de Honor of the Bolivarian Militia University of Venezuela…
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Final Declaration of Havana Approved
Declaration adopted by the Cuba-CARICOM Summit
CARICOM’S stinging rebuke to the United States Rickey Singh
US Committing blunder after blunder Raffique Shah
Let me indicate at the outset what I shall not be talking about this morning…I shall not be talking about Haiti being the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere. I shall not be talking about what we have come to call “Haiti’s glorious past”. I have the greatest admiration for the exploits and achievements of Boukman and Toussaint and Dessalines and Christophe and others who fought successfully for independence, but we should in my view be focusing less on the past and much more on Haiti’s somewhat less than glorious present, and on the possibilities for its future…
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Comment: A Timely, Critical look at Haiti, Rickey Singh
The ‘Most Favoured Nation’ Clause in the CARIFORUM-EC EPA: Policy Blunder or Legal Inconsistency? Claude Chase
3 Comments »The inclusion of Most Favoured Nation (MFN) clauses in the EPA, that require CARIFORUM countries to extend to the EU any more favourable treatment granted to third parties in future Free Trade Agreements (FTAs), has generated some controversy. This note critically examines the arguments that have been leveled against the inclusion of these clauses from legal, and policy perspectives…
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Click here for EPA in the media 2007-2008
Answers to questions posed by Havelock Brewwster in his comment. It is not known how many of the 15 CARIFORUM states and how many of the 27 EU states have ratified the EPA. The EPA has been traditionally applied, but it is not known when it will come into force.
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This update discusses the current state of play regarding the implementation of the Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA) between the CARIFORUM (CF)States and the EU, referred to as CF EC EPA. It aims to address the following questions: What has been done thus far and how can both EU and CF representatives demonstrate a stronger commitment to providing public access to information concerning EPA-related developments? It shows that there is a serious public information deficit regarding the EPA and its implementation…
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Recent news on the stalemate in the EPA negotiations in Southern Africa raises fresh questions about the wisdom of Cariforum countries in rushing to sign on to a ‘Full’ EPA with Europe in October 2008…
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Public Procurement links the issues of good governance and of economic development.The current preoccupation with eliminating corruption and securing best value for taxpayers’ money should not be allowed to obscure the equally important role of public procurement in fostering new industries and development of technological capabilities…

