State of play, main conclusions, outlook

In December 2007 the EU concluded negotiations with the CARIFORUM Region (14 Partners on the CARIFORUM side¹) of the Economic Partnership Agreement and the agreement provisionally entered into force on 29 December 2008.

The EU and CARIFORUM started the negotiations for a new reciprocal trade agreement in April 2004. As the first comprehensive EPA at the time, it not only covers reciprocal liberalisation of trade in goods, but also trade in services, investment as well as many other aspects (e.g. customs, e-commerce, competition, sustainable development). The comprehensiveness was also based on the insight that many of the traditional as well as emerging industries of the Caribbean – tourism, services, creative industries, among others – do need tailored disciplines. In addition, development co-operation is an integral part of the agreement, seeing that with their often small size Caribbean countries need technical assistance to fully realize their export potential to the EU.

In February 2019, the Commission launched the ex-post evaluation process of the EU-CARIFORUM EPA with the objective to provide an evidence-based report on the effects and impacts of trade and development agreement. The evaluation aims to assess the potential economic, social, human rights and environmental impacts both in the partner countries and the EU, including the implementation and cooperation aspects.

The evaluation covers the whole period of implementation (2008-2021) and considers the implementation, functioning and use of the EPA, as well as the overall knowledge and awareness of it on both sides.

To support the evaluation process, an evaluation study started in 2019. The results are available on the Commission’s website.

The objective of the evaluation is to determine the extent to which the CARIFORUM-EU EPA has been implemented, where the bottlenecks lie and the extent to which the EPA has contributed effectively and efficiently to reach the objectives it set out.

In parallel, and based on the results of the evaluation study, the Commission has engaged into the bilateral EU-CARIFORUM Joint Review of the Agreement. The Joint Report from this Review with the conclusions is expected early 2023.

Estimated savings and benefits

The ongoing evaluation analyses the impact of the EU-CARIFORUM EPA in order to determine best practice and lessons that can be learnt from the implementation of this trade and development agreement and in order to better inform further implementation of this EPA in the future. Determining these lessons may also inform the new cooperation aid programming exercise 2021-2027 and tools to better support the implementation of the agreement to achieve its trade and development priorities with the CARIFORUM region as defined in Art. 1 of that EPA as well as Art. 8 of EPA concerning Cooperation Priorities under that Agreement.

The ex-post analysis will be valuable basis for the formulation of sound, transparent and evidence-based trade and cooperation policy and tools to use with CARIFORUM.

^[1] Antigua and Barbuda, The Bahamas, Barbados, Belize, Dominica, Grenada, Guyana, Jamaica, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Suriname, Trinidad and Tobago, and the Dominican Republic