CARIFORUM, UK reaffirm commitment to implement Economic Partnership Agreement

The Caribbean Forum of African, Caribbean, and Pacific States (CARIFORUM), and the United Kingdom (UK), have reaffirmed their commitment to fully implementing and ratifying the Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA) signed in 2021.
A communique issued after the inaugural meeting of the CARIFORUM-UK Technical Sub-Committee on Development Cooperation (TSCDC) from January 30-31 in Georgetown, Guyana, notes that officials from both sides discussed areas of mutual interest such as leveraging market access offers, tariff commitments, enhancing trade in goods and services, and initiating regular tourism services dialogue.
The meeting, held at the CARICOM Secretariat Headquarters, also reviewed recent UK trade policy developments affecting the Agreement, the Communique states.
Recognising the EPA’s importance to their economic and development partnership, the parties discussed high-priority market access challenges as well as what needs to be done to ensure the objectives of the agreement can be achieved.
In noting the EPA’s potential to increase trade and investment, it was agreed that they would prioritise actions to overcome the obstacles hindering CARIFORUM States from effectively entering the UK market. The parties also addressed the UK’s market access concerns in CARIFORUM States, according to the Communique.

CARIFORUM and UK officials examined the EPA’s role as a development-focused Agreement, with the UK reaffirming its commitment to financial assistance, aligned with CARIFORUM’s priorities
They also highlighted the significant milestones since the Agreement’s provisional application in 2021. These include operationalisation of Joint Institutions such as the Joint CARIFORUM-UK Council, the Special Committee on Services, and the Technical Sub-Committee on Development Cooperation.
The CARIFORUM-UK EPA is a roll-over agreement from the CARIFORUM-EU EPA as it replicates all relevant sections of the existing EPA with necessary technical and administrative changes to make the agreement operable in a CARIFORUM-UK context.
The EPA is of economic importance to Guyana’s private sector considering that the UK is Guyana’s largest trading partner in Europe, and sixth largest trading partner overall.
It accounts for 2.1 per cent of imports, 8.8 per cent of all exports, and is an important market for sugar, rice and rum exports. At the regional level, the UK is the largest trading partner for CARIFORUM. It absorbs 25 per cent of exports from the region.
The meeting, chaired by the UK, was attended by representatives from Antigua and Barbuda, Barbados, Belize, The Bahamas, Dominica, the Dominican Republic, Grenada, Guyana, Jamaica, St Kitts and Nevis, St Lucia, St Vincent and the Grenadines, Suriname, Trinidad and Tobago, the UK, and Northern Ireland. Haiti attended as an observer.