Caribbean: EU External Trade

Mr. Drew
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs what recent progress has been made on individual Caribbean countries signing Economic Partnership Agreements with the EU; and what recent representations he has received on the fairness of such agreements.

Chris Bryant
The Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA) between the CARIFORUM States and the European Community (EC) and its member states was signed by 13 CARIFORUM states on 15 October 2008: Antigua and Barbuda, The Commonwealth of the Bahamas, Barbados, Belize, The Commonwealth of Dominica, The Dominican Republic, Grenada, Jamaica, Saint Christopher and Nevis, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, The Republic of Suriname, and the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago. The Republic of Guyana signed on 20 October 2008 and most recently The Republic of Haiti signed on 11 December 2009. With the signature of Haiti, all 15 Caribbean states who chose to negotiate the EPA with the EC have now signed. The Foreign and Commonwealth Office has not received any recent representations on the fairness of this agreement.