Bdos: Cariforum-EU tap dance

BARBADOS and its counterparts making up the CARIFORUM group have started what amounts to the first stage in preparing for a new economic relationship with the European Union (EU).

Over the weekend the two sides commenced negotiations in Jamaica for an Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA).

The CARIFORUM group is made up of Caribbean Community states, Haiti and the Doiminican Republic.

Information made available to the Barbados Advocate said that the CARIFORUM-EU EPA, which will be the outcome of negotiations – set to come to a close December 2007 – was described by the Prime Minister of Jamaica, the P.J. Patterson, as blending “elements of continuity and elements of change”.

Barbados’ Senior Minister Dame Billie Miller, said that the negotiations are being launched in circumstances that are less than propitious.

She also stressed that the region was committed to crafting an EPA appropriate to small developing economies.