WT/REG 420/N/1  
S/C/N /1025  
 
7 January 2021  
(21-0254) Page: 1/2 
Committee on Regional Trade Agreements  
Council for Trade in Services  Original: English  
 
 
NOTIFICATION OF REGIONAL TRADE AGREEMENT  
1. Member(s) notifying:  Antigua and Barbuda,  Barbados, Belize, Dominica, Dominican 
Republic, Grenada, Guyana, Jamaica, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and 
the Grenadines, Trinidad and Tobago,  and the United Kingdom . 
2. Date of notification:  31 December  2020 
3. Notification pursuant to  
[X] Article XXIV:7(a) of GATT 1994  
[X] Article V:7(a) of GATS  
[ ] Paragraph 4(a) of the Enabling Clause  
4. Parties to the Agreement:   
United Kingdom, of the one part, and  
Antigua and Barbuda, Bahamas, Barbados, Belize, Dominica, Dominican Republic, 
Grenada, Guyana, Haiti, Jamaica, Saint Kitts and Nevis , Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the 
Grenadines, Suriname, and Trinidad and Tobago (the CARIFORUM States), of the other 
part.  
5. Date of signature:     
Barbados, Belize, Dominica, Grenada, Guyana, Jamaica, Saint Kitts and Nevis , Saint Lucia, 
Saint Vincent and the Grenadines and the United Kingdom signed  on 22 March 2019. 
Trinidad and Tobago signed on 1 April 2019. The Dominica n Republic signed on 4 April 
2019. Antigua and Barbuda signed on 6 June 2019. The Bahamas signed on  27 November  
2019. 
6. Date(s) of entry into Force:  01 January 2021  
7. Brief description of the Agreement:   
The preferential trading relationship between the CARIFORUM States  and the U nited 
Kingdom  was governed previously by the Economic Partnership Agreement between the 
CARIFORUM States, o f the one part, and the European Community and its Member States, 
of the other part (the CARIFORUM -EU EPA, document series : WT/REG255 ). 
The Economic Partnership Agreement between the CARIFORUM States, of the one part, 
and the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, of the other part (the 
CARIFORUM -UK EPA) is based on the CARIFORUM EPA.  
The CARIFORUM -UK EPA  establishes a free  trade area for trade in goods, within the 
meaning of Article XXIV of the GATT 1994, and for trade in services, within the meaning 
of Article V of the GATS.  
The CARIFORUM -UK EPA covers trade in goods, including rules of origin, preferential tariffs 
and quo tas as well as  investment and trade in services. It also contains provisions on 
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property, public procurement, environment  and social aspects, development cooperation 
as well a s dispute settlement and institutional provisions . 
As of 1 January 2021, the United Kingdom, Antigua and Barbuda,  Bahamas, Barbados, 
Belize, Dominica, Dominican Republic, Grenada, Guyana, Jamaica, Saint Kitts and Nevis , 
Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the G renadines  will provisionally apply the CARIFORUM -UK 
EPA. The United  Kingdom  will continue preferential trading on the basis of Memoranda of 
Understanding with Saint Kitts and Nevis  and with Trinidad and Tobago pending completion 
of domestic procedures for provisional application or ratification.  
Haiti and Suriname are Parties to the CARIFORUM -UK EPA but have not yet signed the 
CARIFORUM -UK EPA , so will not access preferential trade under the provisions of the 
CARIFORUM -UK EPA  until their signature and application of the Agreement . 
8. Text and related schedules, annexes and protocols are:  
[ ] submitted to the WTO Secretariat (electronic format)  
[X] available from the following official Internet link(s):  
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/ms -no182 019-economic -partnership -
agreement -between -the-cariforum -states -of-the-one-part-and-the-united -kingdom -of-
great -britain -and-northern -ire