The EPA: Dead in the water?

Is the value of the 2008 EU Cariforum Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA) with Europe attenuating or can it still be made to work to the region’s advantage? Trying to answer this and other questions about the success or otherwise of the agreement, which asymmetrically freed trade between Europe and most Caribbean nations while providing support with regional integration, is far from easy.

It is clear that there are very large sums of money being made available by Europe – probably for the last time – to support regional integration and to meet many of the technical requirements of the EPA. However, despite exhortations and endless meetings and seminars in the region it