belixe – CARICOM https://caricom.org Caribbean Community Mon, 21 Jul 2025 15:10:08 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.4.6 Belize’ trade official on week-long attachment at CARIFORUM’s EPA Unit https://caricom.org/belize-trade-official-on-week-long-attachment-at-cariforums-epa-unit/ Mon, 21 Jul 2025 15:10:08 +0000 https://caricom.org/?p=46967 (CARIFORUM Directorate, CARICOM Secretariat, Turkeyen, Greater Georgetown) – The regional Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA) Implementation Unit is conducting a week-long capacity building programme for Belize’s Trade Economist, Mr. Julton Wagner, as part of its ongoing support to CARIFORUM States to implement the CARIFORUM-European Union EPA.

This capacity-building initiative under the National EPA Coordinator Attachment Programme will run from July 21-25 and is organised by the CARIFORUM Directorate within the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) Secretariat. Funded under the 11th European Development Fund Technical Cooperation Facility, it aims to enhance Member States’ capacity to effectively implement the EPA and leverage CARIFORUM’s trade relationship with the European Union.

During the week-long attachment, Mr. Wagner will learn more about the EPA and the operations of the EPA Implementation Unit through engagements with the specialists in Trade in Goods, Investment and Trade in Services and EPA Development Cooperation.

Since its inception in 2024, trade officials from St. Kitts and Nevis, Suriname, Guyana and The Bahamas have participated in the National EPA Coordinator Attachment Programme. Through their attachment, it is hoped that EPA Coordinators will gain exposure to different EPA implementation structures, work plans, challenges, consultative processes, and practices, exchange information on national implementation actions and challenges and explore ways to address these challenges.

It is also anticipated that EPA Coordinators will identify methods to advance EPA implementation, build networks and connections for future collaboration and acquire new insights into problem-solving to enhance EPA implementation.

About The CARIFORUM-EU EPA:

The EPA between CARIFORUM States and the EU and its Member States was signed on October 15, 2008. It aims to liberalise trade between 15 CARIFORUM States and 27 EU countries on a reciprocal but asymmetrical basis.
This comprehensive trade and development agreement covers:

  1. Market Access for Industrial and Agricultural products;
  2. Services and Investment;
  3. Trade-related issues such as competition policy, the environment, transparency in government procurement, innovation and intellectual property, social aspects, and personal data protection;
  4. Development cooperation;
  5. Legal and institutional issues.



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CARICOM Secretary-General on rice importation dispute https://caricom.org/caricom-secretary-general-on-rice-importation-dispute/ Sun, 10 Jan 2016 21:02:00 +0000 http://wp.caricom.org/?p=13826

BELIZE CITY, Thurs. Jan 7, 2016–CARICOM Secretary-General, Ambassador Irwin LaRocque, arrived in Belize this Tuesday, January 5, to meet with Belize Prime Minister Dean Barrow, who assumed the rotating chairmanship of CARICOM on January 1, and to discuss with him plans for the CARICOM Heads of Government meeting due to be held in Placencia, Stann Creek, on February 16 and 17.

Upon his arrival, LaRocque found that there had been a legal dispute between the Customs Department and Jitendra Chawla, a Belizean importer (Mr Jack Charles) whose three containers of Guyanese rice valued at roughly BZ$70,000, had been blocked at the port of entry, on the claim that he had not obtained the requisite importer’s permit.

Jack Charles

Speaking with journalists today outside the headquarters of the Caribbean Regional Fisheries Mechanism (CRFM), where LaRocque had paid a courtesy call on the regional organization, the CARICOM Secretary-General was very cautious about passing judgment on the situation.

He was adamant, though, that sanitary and phytosanitary (SPS) issues, which govern the safety and health standards of food imports “cannot and ought not to be used as a protective mechanism and [permits] ought not to be withheld based on protecting a particular sector…”

We asked LaRocque what his vision is for the resolution of the dispute, which has been ongoing for several weeks now and which is currently tied up in litigation in Belize courts.

“I hope that the parties can find a solution to this and if they can’t, there is a process—again, I am not seized of all of the details and I am being extremely cautious—there is a general process when there is a trading issue that takes place: how do you go about addressing it?

“In this instance… from what I have gleaned from the public domain, from what I read in the media, it is an SPS issue, and hence it is not necessarily a trade dispute in that realm. Again, I am being very cautious; I do not know the full details…”

LaRocque said that the SPS rules and procedures are set by the World Trade Organization. He also said that while lesser developed CARICOM countries such as Belize and OECS countries, can seek protection for certain sectors, that protection is sought by levying tariffs—not by blocking imports.

“Once that hurdle is cleared for future imports, that there is no health impediment, be it to human health or plant, one would have to determine on what basis should such a permit be withheld,” LaRocque said.

He declined to comment on whether the matter could be a case for the Caribbean Court of Justice – an organ of CARICOM which has the jurisdiction to hear trade disputes between member states.

LaRocque told the press that while in Belize, he also paid a courtesy call on the Caribbean Community Climate Change Center (CCCCC or 5Cs), another regional agency based in Belize.

The CARICOM Secretary-General acknowledged the contribution made by CCCCC on behalf of CARICOM in achieving a successful outcome at the milestone COP 21 conference recently held in Paris.

“CARICOM is here ever present in Belize every single day, working on behalf of the Community and working on behalf of Belize,” LaRocque told the press.

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