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On 22 November 2013, the European Commission announced that Senior officials from the EU and the Caribbean, meeting in St. George’s, Grenada, on 21 November, reaffirmed the two regions’ commitment to their close trade and development partnership. Officials discussed progress so far in putting the CARIFORUM-EU Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA) into practice.
The EPA is now in its fifth year of implementation, and this was the third annual meeting of a body which it establishes, the CARIFORUM-EU Trade and Development Committee (TDC).
Officials focused on involving civil society in EPA implementation, trade in agriculture, and monitoring the EPA. They discussed the involvement of civil society, which will have its own Consultative Committee under the EPA. On agriculture, they launched talks on measures to promote and protect Geographical Indications (GIs) – such as Blue Mountain coffee from Jamaica or Roquefort cheese from France. The regular monitoring and review of the EPA was also on the agenda, with discussion of the first five-yearly review, due for completion in 2014, and the creation of a long-term mechanism to monitor the EPA’s results.
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