12-31-2007, 11:23 AM
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Gold
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Join Date: Mar 2005
Posts: 2,289
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A great trade agreement not much talked about here, ..
DR has been finding a great niche in high end production. To that end it recently has improvement on a great deal other central American countries don't have: non-fully reciprocal full free trade access to the largest market in the world for agricultural products. Not only that, DR tropical agricultural products are great complementary what that market itself specializes in, ..
At about 1:30 a.m. on the morning of Sunday, December 16, weary Carib-bean and European negotiators finally initialled the text of an partnership agreement (EPA) between Europe and Cariforum.
The final text is complex and daunting - it runs to well over a thousand pages - but it is comprehensive and sometimes innovative.
For the average reader, a more accessible version of what was agreed and a good measure of the level of Caribbean negotiators' achievement is contained in a six- page note sent to the regional private sector by the Caribbean Regional Negotiating Machinery (CRNM).
In outline, the Caribbean EPA offers duty- and quota-free treatment for all Cariforum goods entering Europe as of January 1, 2008, except for rice and sugar. In their case, there will be a two-year period and increased quotas before they, too, have quota free and duty-free status.
..In return, Cariforum will remove tariffs from 80 per [COLOR=orange ! important][COLOR=orange ! important]cent[/color][/color] of EU imports into the region over a 15-year period, with sensitive goods receiving protection for up to 25 years or indefinitely. In implementing this, Cariforum has a three-year moratorium and will, during this period, continue to charge customs duties on all items other than vehicles and gasolene, for which a different phasing was agreed
In the European Union (EU), Cariforum investors will get national treatment and most favoured nation treatment.
Last edited by aegap; 12-31-2007 at 11:30 AM.
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