NewsWhore
05-27-2008, 04:30 PM
David Jessop, executive director of the Caribbean Council, says that the DR stands to gain from the provision in the European Partnership Agreement that opens inter-Caribbean trade. Once the European Partnership Agreement (EPA) is signed in July, he says Dominican business community will benefit from the stipulation that any trade preference granted by one Caricom member to all other signatories, the DR included. He explains this would accomplish the integration of the DR's economy with that of the smaller nations in the English-speaking Caribbean.
Dominicans hope the implementation of the EPA will give the country, after a short transition period, access to markets in the English-speaking Caribbean for the first time. Dominican manufacturers have long been complaining about obstacles Caricom countries have placed to completing the Caricom-DR Free Trade Agreement, to facilitate increased trade in the region. For the DR, the implementation of EPA is a way of getting around the obstacles.
Nevertheless, Jessop says that some island leaders, such as Jamaica's Prime Minister Brice Golding continue to insist on urging European counterparts to maintain the issue of differential treatment for the poorer countries of the region under the EPA, despite the treaty ruling against this asymmetry.
Regardless, Jessop writes that the EPA places the DR business community in a unique position in the Western Hemisphere to make the most of the economies of scale that arise from having a large and viable domestic market, as well as developing trade across its land border in Haiti, together with the possibility of producing goods and providing services for the world's two most wealthy markets, the US and the EU.
The Caribbean Council is a London-based international organization that assists the development of the Caribbean through the promotion of the region's interests internationally and by encouraging new and increased trade and investment with Caribbean countries.
For the complete Jessop commentary, see http://dr1.com/trade/articles/675/1/The-View-from-Europe/Page1.html
More... (http://www.dr1.com/index.html#9)
Dominicans hope the implementation of the EPA will give the country, after a short transition period, access to markets in the English-speaking Caribbean for the first time. Dominican manufacturers have long been complaining about obstacles Caricom countries have placed to completing the Caricom-DR Free Trade Agreement, to facilitate increased trade in the region. For the DR, the implementation of EPA is a way of getting around the obstacles.
Nevertheless, Jessop says that some island leaders, such as Jamaica's Prime Minister Brice Golding continue to insist on urging European counterparts to maintain the issue of differential treatment for the poorer countries of the region under the EPA, despite the treaty ruling against this asymmetry.
Regardless, Jessop writes that the EPA places the DR business community in a unique position in the Western Hemisphere to make the most of the economies of scale that arise from having a large and viable domestic market, as well as developing trade across its land border in Haiti, together with the possibility of producing goods and providing services for the world's two most wealthy markets, the US and the EU.
The Caribbean Council is a London-based international organization that assists the development of the Caribbean through the promotion of the region's interests internationally and by encouraging new and increased trade and investment with Caribbean countries.
For the complete Jessop commentary, see http://dr1.com/trade/articles/675/1/The-View-from-Europe/Page1.html
More... (http://www.dr1.com/index.html#9)