(CARICOM Secretariat, Turkeyen, Greater Georgetown, Guyana) The Caribbean Community (CARICOM) Secretariat, under the auspices of the Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA) Implementation Unit, will from 7-8 March be convening the Second Meeting of Legislative Drafters to consider and refine draft Model Bills intended to give effect to provisions of the Caribbean Forum of African, Caribbean and Pacific States (CARIFORUM)-European Union (EU) EPA. The Meeting is to be held in Trinidad and Tobago.
The Meeting will be funded under the Caribbean Aid for Trade and Regional Integration Trust Fund (CARTFund).
“The Meeting targets legislative drafters from CARIFORUM States that are signatory to the EPA. It is designed to benefit legislative drafters who will be tasked with preparing legislation to give effect to provisions of the Agreement,” said the Unit’s Legal Officer, Ms Alexis Downes-Amsterdam, who is also spearheading the Meeting.
Consideration will be given, at the Meeting, to the following draft Model Bills: (i) Draft Model Telecommunications Regulatory Authority Bill, 2012; and (ii) Draft Model Interconnection and Access to Facilities Bill, 2012. In addition, participants will be provided with an overview of the EPA and the state-of-play of implementation, with particular attention to Trade in Services.
The EPA was signed by fourteen CARIFORUM States in October 2008 and by the fifteenth CARIFORUM State, Haiti, in December 2009. The Agreement is being provisionally applied since 29 December 2008.
The upcoming Meeting is a follow on to the inaugural one held in November 2012, where other draft Model Bills were addressed.
The fifteen signatory Caribbean Forum of African, Caribbean and Pacific (CARIFORUM) States to the EPA are the independent CARICOM Member States and the Dominican Republic.
