From the Trinidad and Tobago Review, February 1, 2010. Cary Fraser is Associate Professor of African and African American Studies and History at Penn State University.

The cataclysm that struck Haiti on January 12, 2010 has devastated the poorest country in the Americas, destroyed its capital, effectively crippled the fragile Haitian state and its agencies, and has transformed the country into a long-term protectorate of the international community. Haiti, for much of the 20th century, has been a dysfunctional state, a quasi-colony of the United States, and a society that struggled to escape the burdens of European and American resentment that it stood as a symbol and a reality of black freedom in the Americas…

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The STOP EPA National Coalition strongly protests the signing of the EPA on December 10th (International Day of Human Rights) by the new Préval / Bellerive government and calls on Haitian parliamentarians to speak out against the EPA and to reject its ratification, which would mean the death of the Haitian economy…

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A detailed and critical examination of recent Free Trade Agreements between developing and developed countries, particularly U.S.-developing country FTAs. Includes treatment of issues market access in trade in goods; services; investment liberalisation and protection of investor rights; intellectual property; government procurement; competition policy; labour and environment standards.

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On 10 and 11 December 2009 the 3rd ACP Civil Society Forum was held at the ACP House in Brussels. Representatives from Africa, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) Civil Society came together to discuss how to move forward after many years of silence and inactivity…

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This 75-page paper begins with an analysis of the disadvantages of free trade agreements compared to multilateral trade agreements; and continues with a critique of the CARIFORUM-EC Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA) through a detailed examination of the chapters on Trade in Goods, Services, Investment, Competition policy, Governmment Procurement, Intelellectual Property and Dispute Settlement.

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The International Centre for Trade and Sustainable Development (ICTSD)* is pleased to alert you to three new papers on key issues related to Economic Partnership Agreements (EPAs).

Issue Paper 1: “Environmental Issues in Economic Partnership AgreementsImplications for Developing Countries”
By Beatrice Chaytor

This paper provides a comprehensive review of all rules related to trade and environment in the final ACP-EU EPAs, as well as proposed provisions in the context of ongoing negotiations. The aim of the paper is to enable ACP countries to understand how trade policy related to the environment has been introduced in EPAs, and how those policies might impact sustainable development in ACP countries. The paper starts by presenting the current European approach on trade and environment in those agreements. More specifically, it addresses the current state of negotiations, analyses precise proposals made, and explores some of the implications of introducing environmental issues in the EPAs.

Issue Paper 2: “Legal and Systematic Issues in the Interim Economic Partnership Agreements: Which way  now?”
By Cosmas  Milton Obote Ochieng

This paper provides a legal analysis of systemic issues related to the relationship between the WTO and EPAs, including:

- The application of the Most Favourable Nation clause, Article XXIV of GATT and its relationship with EPAs;
- The effects of the “standstill” clause on bound or applied tariff rates applied to ACP countries by WTO members;
- The political and legal effects of the “Non-Execution Clause” in EPAs;
- The articulation of the dispute settlement mechanisms of EPAs and their interactions with the WTO one.

Issue Paper 3: “Trade Agreements and their Relation to Labour Standards: The current situation”
By Pablo Lazo Grandi

This study offers a political and legal review of international labour standards in trade agreements, as well as analysis of how these standards have evolved in the international trade arena. The author examines emerging trends in the negotiation of trade and labour standards at the multilateral, regional, and bilateral trade deals. The study aims to offer developing country governments and other relevant stakeholders practical guidelines on how to address these issues in international negotiations with a focus on RTAs, taking into account the experience of countries, such as Chile, that have already negotiated several of those agreements.

*The International Centre for Trade and Sustainable Development (ICTSD) is a non-governmental organization, based in Geneva, which – by empowering stakeholders in trade policy through information, networking, dialogue, well-targeted research, and capacity building – seeks to influence the international trade system such that it advances the goal of sustainable development. For further information on ICTSD’s EPAs and Regionalism Programme, please see: http://ictsd.org/programmes/epas/

Updating Economic Partnership Agreements to Today’s Global Challenges – Essays on the Future of Economic Partnership Agreements. Edited by Emily Jones (Oxford) and Darlan F Marti (UNCTAD). German Marshall Fund Economic Policy Program. 19 November 2009.

African and Pacific countries continue to negotiate the challenging Economic Partnership Agreements (EPAs) with the European Union. These new agreements have the potential to help African countries accelerate their economic growth and develop more resi lient economies. However, the presence of negotiating deadlocks or a sense of fatigue as well as the lack of real appetite for these agreements among many African, Caribbean, and Pacific (ACP) negotiators, raise legitimate questions regarding their structure and content, as well as their ability to constitute instruments to leverage economic growth…

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This section of the toolkit provides a basic guide to the meaning of some key terms and practical examples of what they involve…

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Traditionally trade means the movement of goods across borders. Free trade rules focused on government measures that restrict the international flow of goods, mainly by taxes (tariffs) at the border, import licenses, quotas, etc…

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The following step-by-step guide is intended to assist people to interpret a country’s trade in services commitments as set out in schedules of commitments to the General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS) at the WTO and under the CARIFORUM-EC EPA..

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