WT/REG255/M/1  
 
18 October 2018 
(18-6500) Page: 1/4 
Committee on Regional Trade Agreements Session  
Ninetieth Session    
 
THE ECONOMIC PARTNERSHIP  AGREEMENT BETWEEN T HE CARIFORUM STATES AND THE 
EUROPEAN UNION (GOODS  AND SERVICES ) 
NOTE ON THE MEETING OF 18 SEPTEMBER 2018 
Chairman: Ambassador Julian  BRAITHWAITE  (United Kingdom ) 
1.1.  The 90th Session of the Committee on Regional Trade Agreements (hereinafter 'CRTA' or the 
'Committee') was convened in Airgram WTO/AIR/RTA/ 15 dated 7  August 2018.  
1.2.  Under Agenda Item E.I of the Session, the CRTA considered the  Economic Partnership 
Agreement between the CARIFORUM States and the European Union  (goods and s ervices),  
hereinafter  "the Agreement").   
1.3.  The Chairman  recall ed that during the CRTA meeting of 4 March 2009, Members had agreed 
to consider RTAs involving non -Members under the Transparency Mechanism's procedures and had 
agreed that those RTAs notified since 14 December 2006, including future notifications, should be 
taken up before the others. Members had made it clear that consideration of such agreements by 
the Committee did not have any implication for the views or pos itions of any Member with respect 
to the consistency of that RTA with WTO rules and would be without prejudice to the rights and 
obligations of Members under the WTO Agreements, as clearly stated in paragraphs 1 and 5 of the 
Transparency Mechanism Decision . Members had also agreed that the consideration of such 
agreements in the CRTA would be organized under a separate agenda item.  
1.4.  The Agreement had been provisionally a pplied by the Parties since 29  December 2008.  It had 
been notified to the WTO by the Par ties on 16  October 2008 under Article  XXIV:7(a) of the 
GATT  1994 and the Understanding on the Interpretation of Article  XXIV of GATT 1994 as an 
Agreement establishing a free trade area (document  WT/REG255/N/1/Rev.1) and under 
GATS  Article  V:7(a) as an Agre ement providing for the liberalization of trade in services within the 
meaning of Article V of the GATS (document S/C/N/469/Rev.1). The text of the Agreement was 
available, together with its Annexes, on the P arties' official websites. The factual p resentat ion on the 
goods and services aspects (document  WT/REG255/1 dated 31 May 2018) a nd questions and replies 
on the  Agreement ( document RD/RTA/49 dated 12  September 2018) ha d been distributed . 
1.5.  The representative of the European Union (EU)  welcomed  the consider ation in the CRTA of the 
Economic Partnership Agreement between the EU and CARIFORUM States . The EU was  particularly 
grateful to the Secretariat for the preparation of t he factual p resentation and to the CARIFORUM 
States  for their cooperation in this exerc ise. It also thanked Argentina, Costa Rica, Ecuador and 
Japan for their questions , and the ir interest in the consideration of the  Agreement.   
1.6.  He began  by recalling  the broader economic and political context within which to situate the 
Agreement . The EU  and the African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) countries and regions had enjoyed 
a strategic p artnership since the ACP -EU Partnership Agreement , which had been  signed in Cotonou 
on 23 June 2000, and was the most comprehensive partnership agreement between developing 
countries and the EU. Since  2000, the Cotonou Agreement had  been the framework for EU relations 
with 79 ACP countries. It had entered into forc e in April 2003 and had  been revised in 2005 and  
2010. The Agreement had  economic, political and development dimensions and wa s characterised 
by equality of the partners, broad -based participation (States and non -State actors), dialogue and 
regional integration. Under the umbrella of t he Cotonou Agreeme nt, the EU had  signed several 
Economic Partnership Agreements (EPAs) with the ACP countries aiming at promoting ACP -EU trade  WT/REG255/M/1  
 
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  in line with WTO rules . The EPAs were  "tailor -made" agreements to suit specific regional 
circumstances and intend ed to support trad e diversification while taking into account different socio -
economic circumstances.  
1.7.  The EU was  pleased to discuss the EU -CARIFORUM EPA in the Committee. The Agreement  had 
been signed in October 2008 and was in provisional application since December 2008.  Haiti, the only 
LDC in the region,  had signed the A greement in December 2009, but was  not yet applying it pending 
ratification.  The Agreement was the first EPA concluded by t he EU and covered  trade in goods, 
services and investment, trade -related issues, s uch as government procurement, intellectual 
property, trade and sustainable development, competition  and development support .  
1.8.  The Agreement took  a region -to-region approach aimed at bolstering regional integration and 
at bringing in targeted support.  The EU was CARIFORUM's second -largest trading partner. He noted 
positive developments for CARIFORUM's  exports to the EU for non -agricultur al goods , which  had 
increased by 23% between 2014  and 2017, and which were much higher for some specific products. 
He also noted the beginning of positive trends in services and investments flows, even bearing in 
mind possible data limitations, with CARIFORUM's services exports to the EU increasing significantly 
from 2013 and the EU 's investment stocks in the region incr easing as well.   
1.9.  Overall  the Agreement provided  for substantial sectoral  coverage. The final outcome reflected  
the negotiations and different level s of economic development between the Parties in order to have 
a free -trade area in which duties a nd quantita tive restrictions had been  eliminated on substantially 
all the trade between the EU and its Member States, of t he one Part, and the CARIFORUM States , of 
the other. The EU reaffirm ed the Parties'  commitment to the A greement as a mechanism for dialogue  
- in addition to political dialo gue under the Cotonou Agreement - and partnership, as well as a tool 
to foster development and reinforce regional integration.  
1.10.   The chapter  on trade in goods  provided  for reciprocal but asymmetric market ope ning by the  
Parties. T he EU had  liberalized  all tariff lines, except arms and ammunition,  meaning all Caribbean 
products enter ed the EU market duty -free and quota -free. The CARIFORUM  States would gradually 
liberali ze imports amounting to ab out 92% of tariff lines and exclud ing altogether about 8% of tariff 
lines for imports that were considered to be sensitive.  The Agreement also included  bilateral and 
multilateral safeguard clauses.  
1.11.   The Parties were  currently focussing on ensuring the effective implementation of the 
Agreement  in all partner countries so  that consumers and business could  fully benefit from the  
regional scope of the A greement in respect of trade and development opportunities arising from it. 
The a ctivities include d, for example: extensive outreach for business a nd citizens; institutional and 
business support; and a joint evaluation  of the A greement . The EU had been working closely with 
the CARIFORUM Secretariat and individual countries on effective implementation by: establishing a 
joint monitoring mechanism by both regions ; providing technical assistance for the transposition of 
the tariff nomenclature; and by implementing the fully comprehensive scope of the A greement , 
including setting up  speciali zed committees on services, promoting awareness on geographical 
indication s, and providing targeted development support  as well as cultural cooperation . In this 
regard, t he 8th Trade and Develop ment Committee with CARIFORUM  States would  meet in early 
December.  
1.12.   The Agreement also included a chapter  on development and co operation, which was 
underpinned by the EU 's development co -operation to reinforce the CARIFORUM 's institutional and 
productive capacities , and to support necessary adju stment processes. The CARIFORUM Parties also 
benefit ted from the European Development F und (EDF). Under the 11th EDF for the period  2014-
2020, €102 million  had been  allocated for projects aimed at strengthening regional cooperation and 
integration, including EPA implementation, trade facilitation and trade -related investments. In 
particular,  the EDF provided for the implementation of  a private sector development programme by 
the Caribbean Export Development Ag ency worth €24 million  and of a new programme to support 
CARIFORUM in the implementation of the EPA worth another €6.2 million.   
1.13.   The EU  looked  forward to a fruitful discussion in the Committee and would  endeavour to 
answer all Members' questions.  WT/REG255/M/1  
 
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  1.14.   The representative of Jamaica , on behalf of the CARIFORUM States , expressed her  gratitude 
to the Secretariat for having prepared the detailed factual presentation of the Agreement . She also  
thanked  Argentina, Costa Rica, Ecuador and Japan for the ir advance written questions and other 
Members for their interest in the Agreement. She also thank ed the European Commission and the 
CARIFORUM Directora te for their close and fruitful cooperation duri ng the  review process which saw 
a joint review of the draft factual presentation and joint replies to the written questions. She thanked 
the representative of the EU for his opening remarks, with which CARIFO RUM generally associate d 
itself, particularly as regards to the sco pe and content of the Agreement; and welcomed  the 
examination  of the Agreement by the Committee with a view to establishing its consistency with the 
relevant multilateral trade rules.  The P arties' commitment to transparency had been demonstrated 
by close ly working with the Secretariat in providi ng detailed comments on the draft factual 
presentation and comprehensive answers to the written questions posed by four delegations. The 
consultative  process on the CARIFORUM side had been quite extensive  as the CARIFORUM States 
had signed the Agreement in their own right.  
1.15.   She indicated that October 2018 would  mark the tenth anniversary of the CARIFORUM -EU 
EPA. The Agreement had ushered in a  completely new trading relationship between the CARIFORUM 
and the EU and its Member States, replacing the trade provisions of the Cotonou Agreeme nt, signed 
in 2000. Members would  recall that the Cotonou’s non -reciprocal trade preferences required a waiver  
from the WTO of Article 1 of the GATT. The Agreement had been configured by the Parties to be 
compliant with the WTO legal framework through legal consistency with the substantive provisions 
of Article XXIV of the GATT  and Article V of the GATS , which  set out the normative requirements for 
the establishment of a WTO compatible free trade area and an econ omic integration agreement , 
respectively .   
1.16.   The Agreement was the first EPA to have been completed between the EU  and one of the six 
sub-regions of the ACP , and covered , inter alia , trade in goods, services and investment, competition 
policy, innovation and intellectual property, transparency in public procurement, environment and 
social aspects, and personal data p rotect ion. The Agreement also contained  an overarching chapter  
on development c ooperation , which outlined  the scope and cooperation priorities, such as support 
to build human, legal and institutional capacity, promotion of private sector and enterprise 
development, and diversification of the export base and support to develop infrastructure necessary 
to conduct trade. The overarching objectives of the Agreement  had been  to alleviate poverty in 
CARIFORUM, to promote regional integration and economic cooperation and to foster the gradual 
integra tion of the CARIFORUM States into the world economy by improving their trade capacity and 
creating an investment -conducive environment.  
1.17.   Since the provisional application of the Agreement,  both s ides had  been working closely on 
the implementation of its provisions. In 2015, the Parties had conducted a comprehensive review of 
the operations of the Agreement to determine its impact, including the costs, benefits and other 
consequences of implementation. The y had ta ken stock of progress made in implementing the  
Agreement while noting that it had not had yet the anticipated impact on overall trade between the 
CARIFORUM States and the EU. It had been  recognised however, that the global financial and 
economic crisis of 2008, coming right at the commencement of the implementation of the EPA, had 
exposed the vulnerable nature of CARIFORUM economies and had generally impacted levels of trade, 
collection of Government revenue, as well as foreign exchange earnings, particularly in the tourism 
dependent economies. It was known that the CARIFORUM States  were small economies.  At the end 
of that r eview, the Parties  had affirmed their unwavering commitment to the Agreement as a 
comprehensive and forward -looking platform for economic and social cooperation. The y had 
expressed c onfidence that, in spite of the implementation challenges they  had been confronted  with, 
the Agreement had  tremendous potential for contributing to the sustainable development of 
CARIFORUM States.  Th e next comprehensive review would take pla ce in 2020 and  both Parties were  
already engaged in its planning.  Both the CARIFORUM  States and the EU had vowed to intensify 
their efforts to work towards the achievement of the objectives of the Agreement  and to further 
strengthen their partnership. She looked forward  to further engagement with Members in the review . 
1.18.   The representative of Ecuador  thanked  the EU and the CARIFORUM States for their replies to 
Ecuador 's written  questions. The  replies would be submitted to her capital for further analysis.  
1.19.   The Representativ e of the United States  expressed his appreciation to the delegations of the 
EU and Jamaica, on behalf of CARIFORUM, for their presentation s. It had been  a very useful way to 
see how the Agreement fit into the relationship between the Parties. The CARIFORUM  States were WT/REG255/M/1  
 
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  also important trading partner s for the United States. He welcomed the opportunity to review the 
active engagement  between these two important Parties and appreciated the information provided , 
which showed  the growing and deepening  trade relationship between the m. The submission of 
questions by other Members made the review more interesting and he thanked the Members that 
had submitted written questions.  He believed it was interesting  to read  how others were looking at 
this relationship an d reflecting upon what was important for them . This was important for the work 
of the committee. He also acknowledged the hard work of the Parties in responding, and noted that 
in review s that  involved  a large regional group it was quite a challenge to coo rdinate answers and 
so commended the admi rable job that had been done with respect to  their responses , including 
some comprehensive tables , which were quite impressive.  
1.20.   The Chairman  thanked both  delegations for their presentations, which had been extremel y 
useful and for the supporting documentati on. He noted that the highlight  of the meeting - and of all 
meetings of the CRTA - was the large amount of work that was put into pulling  together these 
presentations. The Agreement had been notified some time ago, and so h e gave all credit to the 
delegations of the EU and Jamaica, on behalf of CARIFORUM States for finalizing the review process 
and putting the Agreement in the Agenda for discussion. He thanked the delegations for their 
cooperation and Ministries  in capital for their work in preparing for the review.   
1.21.   The Chairman said that consideration of the goods and s ervices aspect s of the Economic 
Partnership Agreement between the CARIFORUM States and the European Union , had allowed the 
Committee to clarify a number of questions and it could now conclude oral discussion of the RTA in 
accordance with paragraph 11 of the Transparency Mechanism. If any delegations wished to ask 
follow -up questions they were invited to forward submissions in writing to the Secret ariat by 25 
September 2018  and Parties were asked to submit replies in writing by no later than 9 October 2018 . 
In accordance with paragraph  13 of the Transparency Mechanism all written submissions, as well as 
minutes of the meeting would be circulated pro mptly, in all WTO  official languages, and would be 
made available on the WTO website.  
1.22.   The Committee took note of the comments made.  
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