Impact Study: UNESCO-Aschberg Programme for Artists and Cultural Professionals

Introduction The CARIFORUM-EU Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA) is a free trade agreement concluded between CARIFORUM States (14 CARICOM countries 6 and the Dominican Republic) and the European Union (EU) 7 . It was signed in October 2008 and has been provisionally applied since December 2008 8 . The CARIFORUM‑EU EPA replaces the trade provisions of the 2000 Cotonou Agreement, throughwhich the EU unilaterally granted preference to the African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) countries, in compliancewithWorldTrade Organization (WTO) rules. Upon signing the EPA, CARIFORUM became the first regional group within the ACP to secure a comprehensive agreement with the EU and its Member States and is the only EPA to include provisions on trade in services. The CARIFORUM-EU EPA is a “deep” free trade agreement. Thismeans that it includes all economic sectors and covers trade in goods and services, investment, trade-related issues, such as innovation, intellectual property and government procurement, sustainable development, as well as a comprehensive chapter on development cooperation. The agreement operates on a non-reciprocal basis – in the sense that the EU has opened its market to a much greater extent than the Caribbean States have. The Caribbean States have also benefitted from different transition periods, allowing for more time to implement the EPA. For trade in goods, the EPA reinforces and widens duty- free quota-free (DFQF) access for CARIFORUM goods into EU markets. The CARIFORUM‑EU EPA also contains a number of provisions and significant concessions in the services sectors, which is particularly important for the Caribbean – where in some countries, services represent more than 80% of GDP.

6. Antigua and Barbuda; Bahamas; Barbados; Belize; Dominica; Grenada; Guyana; Jamaica; Saint Kitts and Nevis; Saint Lucia; Saint Vincent and the Grenadines; Suriname; Trinidad and Tobago. Haiti signed the Agreement in December 2009 but has yet to ratify the EPA. All 28 EU Member States have signed the EPA with Croatia joining in 2017. 7. To date, 10 CARIFORUM States and 23 EU Member States have ratified the EPA. 8. The full text is available at: http://ec.europa.eu/world/agreements/downloadFile. do?fullText=yes&treatyTransId=12969

11 Culture in the CARIFORUM-EU EPA