From Antigua Observer

Caribbean Forum (CARIFORUM) countries say they are yet to “meaningfully reap the potential benefits” of the Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA) signed with Europe in 2008.

The issue was among matters discussed at the 23rd Meeting of the Council of CARIFORUM Ministers held here earlier this week, and according to a statement issued on Friday a review of the EPA had concluded that the region “ had as yet to meaningfully reap the potential benefits of the Agreement.

“They underscored that, for CARIFORUM, the EPA is a source of mixed feelings. The commonly held view was that CARIFORUM committed itself and signed a comprehensive EPA, yet it has not “harvested the windfalls” which seemed to have been held out as reward for early signature of the Agreement,” the statement noted.

It said that in further reviewing the state-of-play of EPA implementation, the ministers accorded high priority to wide-ranging technical work and tasked officials to follow up accordingly.

“They took note that CARIFORUM and EU senior officials held a Political Dialogue Meeting in Guyana on 15 March 2016, at which the EU provided an update on the Commission of the European Union’s recent Communication on an External Strategy for Effective Taxation as Part of its Anti-Tax Avoidance Package,” the statement said.The statement noted that the ministers also expressed “their deep concern” that recent developments on taxation in the European Union have the potential to negatively impact the economies of a number of CARIFORUM states.

The ministers at their meeting which was under the chairmanship of Haiti, welcomed the agreement arrived at in the Political Dialogue Meeting for the two regions to discuss a range of issues affecting the financial services sector, including taxation and correspondent banking, within the Joint CARIFORUM-EU Working Group on the Joint CARIFORUM-EU Partnership Strategy.

“They hailed the approach agreed to at the Political Dialogue Meeting to utilize the said Working Group as a forum to, in part, exchange information and explore what actions can be carried out on this matter to avoid negative repercussions in CARIFORUM States.”

The statement said that the future of the African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) and ACP/EU relations also came up for detailed discussion with the meeting recalling that the ongoing assessment of the ACP has been precipitated by the impending expiration of the current legally-binding framework for the EU’s trade, political dialogue and development cooperation relations with the 78 member grouping.

“It was noted that the exercise is geared towards an examination of the renewal, transformation and strategic change of the ACP Group. In this regard, the ACP Group is giving consideration to its own future.”

The final report of the Eminent Persons’ Group (EPG), which provides guidance on and concrete recommendations for the future of the ACP, will be considered at the eighth Summit of ACP Heads of State and Government to be held in Papua New Guinea from May 30 to June 1.

“Accordingly, the Ministers reviewed the options for the future of the ACP which would be most advantageous to CARIFORUM and mandated the convening of a CARIFORUM Meeting on the Future of the ACP preparatory to the 8th Summit of ACP Heads of State and Government. They agreed that the summary document arising from the said Meeting would be utilized to assist CARIFORUM States in their preparation for and participation in the Summit,” the statement noted.

The meeting here also discussed certain challenges in programme implementation of the 10th European Development Fund (EDF) Caribbean Regional Indicative Programme (CRIP) and the ministers are reported to have “endorsed the remedial action being taken”.

The statement said that the status of the 11th EDF CRIP that was signed in June 2015 with the statement noting that the “meeting highlighted the successful conclusion of the agreement to the value of €346 million (One Euro=US$1.29 cents).”

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