Les Accords de Partenariat Économiques (APE) comme outil d’appui aux pays ACP dans leur stratégie de développement économique et commercial : le cas de l’APE CARIFORUM-UE

The Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA) CARIFORUM-EU is a “north – south” free trade agreement negotiated under the Cotonou Agreement (2000-2020) between the ACP States and the EU, compatible with WTO rules, and inclusive of innovating characteristics such as asymmetrical liberalization commitments...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Jean-Michel Salmon
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Université des Antilles 2019-11-01
Series:Études Caribéennes
Subjects:
Online Access:https://journals.openedition.org/etudescaribeennes/16261
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Summary:The Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA) CARIFORUM-EU is a “north – south” free trade agreement negotiated under the Cotonou Agreement (2000-2020) between the ACP States and the EU, compatible with WTO rules, and inclusive of innovating characteristics such as asymmetrical liberalization commitments, development cooperation measures and a large accompanying institutional structure, with a view to taking into account the gap between both parties economic development levels. It has replaced the former non-reciprocal trade regime under the Lomé arrangements which were considered inefficient and running against multilateral trade rules.After ten years of progressive implementation (2008-2018), this EPA has entered into a critical phase, while it seems to so far face mixed results in terms of bilateral trade, with the Caribbean side seeing its negative trade balance deepened, together with a recently much increased service surplus, the latter being seemingly concentrated on a limited range of Caribbean countries and service sectors. Next EPA implementation stages and perspectives in relation to post Cotonou, EU post 2020 issues and the Brexit may lead to some more ambiguous effects, which calls for both parties to implement reinforced monitoring and accompanying measures, in particular with regard to an effective way to address the relatively disadvantaged productive conditions faced by the small island economies of the Caribbean.
ISSN:1779-0980
1961-859X