Dr Jane Kelsey, Professor of Law at the University of Auckland and a leading international authority on trade in services agreements, has conducted an exhaustive study of Legal Provisions on Services and Investment in the CARIFORUM-EC EPA. The eleven-chapter, 111-page study, now published by the South Centre, indentifies five principal categories of legal risk in the EPA: (i) asymmetry in favour of the EU; (ii) the unpredictable and unlimited multiplier effect of most-favoured nation and ‘regional preference’ obligations; (iii) an externally imposed regional integration model; (iv) closure of policy space; (v) complexity, uncertainty and a heightened risk of errors with no structured opportunity to correct them.

The main recommendation for Cariforum States is to utilise the Joint Declaration of the Parties on the Signing of the Economic Partnership Agreement, to be conducted pursuant to Article 5 of the EPA, which the author states is ‘the only formal opportunity to address the concerns raised  in the report’. For Non-Cariforum States, especially in the ACP grouping, the main recommendation is they ‘should assert their right not to negotiate an agreement with the EU on services and investment’.

The publication of the Kelsey Report provides an opportunity to broaden current exchanges over the EPA in the Caribbean beyond the issue of implementation of the agreement. Given the scope and extent of the legal risks identified, it would be appropriate for the legal and other academic community, trade officials, the private sector, NGOs and other stakeholders to examine the EPA text critically with a view to assessing the implications and detemining the modifications necessary to make the Agreement more in line with Cariforum/Caricom circumstances and interests. This is all the more important, in that services and investment form part of the CARICOM/Canada FTA and negotiations on these subjects are due to commence soon. Further, we are nearly two years into the period allowed for the mandatory review, and adequate preparation in support of the Caricom/Cariforum case needs to be made.

Read the Kelsey/South Centre Report

West African nations have proposed a Development Programme as the framework for their EPA negotiations with Europe. There may be a lesson here for us in the Caribbean…

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One World Action and the Commonwealth Secretariat recently published the report: Gender Justice in Trade Policy: The gender effects of Economic Partnership Agreements [1]. Based on the goods tariff liberalisation schedules agreed in Jamaica, Tanzania and Mozambique, this research provides the first detailed economy-wide analysis of the likely gender effects of EPAs…

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Jamaica Case Study

The European Union (EU)’s interest and involvement in foreign direct investment (FDI) is by no means new. However, it has only been comparatively recently that one has been able to begin to distinguish the particularities of a specific EU approach to FDI, especially when placed within a broader developmental context. The approach has been most visible during the ongoing negotiations of Economic Partnership Agreements (EPAs) with the African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) grouping of States…

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Attachments

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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/