More than a decade has passed since the EU-CARIFORUM Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA) was negotiated and signed.
The free-trade agreement with Europe marked the end of preferential arrangements for Caribbean commodity exports and established a new asymmetric, region-specific basis for trade with the EU’s now twenty-seven member states. Linked to measures intended to encourage development and regional integration, it is mirrored in most respects in a post-Brexit UK-CARIFORUM EPA.
For the EU, the EPA brought to an end years of battling with the US and others over the WTO compatibility of its longstanding preferential arrangements for its former colonies, reflecting a concern that without development linked free trade agreements, the erosion of its preference for its traditional partners in the ACP group would be unstoppable.
