THE Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA) Implementation Unit within the CARIFORUM Directorate of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) Secretariat, on Friday last, brought to a close a week of successive EPA-related meetings in St Vincent and the Grenadines and Grenada, respectively.
In the case of St Vincent and the Grenadines, the Unit collaborated with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Foreign Trade and Consumer Affairs. In the other State, the regional Unit partnered with the Grenada National EPA Implementation Unit (NEPAIU).
According to a statement from the CARICOM Secretariat in Georgetown, the centerpiece in both States was a national Consultation on Trade in Services in the CARIFORUM-EU EPA. For St Vincent and the Grenadines, that Consultation took place on 27 September, in Kingstown. For Grenada, the activity was convened on September 29, in St George’s.
Both engagements, which targeted national stakeholders spanning the public and private sectors and civil society, were hailed by participants as a “resounding success.”
President of the St Vincent and the Grenadines Construction Association, Mr Desmond Pompey, said he was better equipped to engage his Association’s membership on EPA matters, as a result of his attendance. Mr Richard Ramdhanny, a representative of Technology Solutions Limited (TSL) – a full service, Grenada-based IT provider – registered “deep satisfaction” that the Grenada Consultation was held, but stressed that “there is a need for on-going, sector-specific EPA sensitization activities.”
Participants at both consultations felt that they had gained a much deeper appreciation of the CARIFORUM-EU EPA and some of the obligations that CARIFORUM States have undertaken to meet, in addition to a clearer understanding of the benefits and challenges associated with harnessing the Agreement.
Some forty persons took part in the St Vincent and the Grenadines Consultation. While some were from line ministries, the majority of participants were sectoral representatives from such fields as culture, management consulting, transportation services, international financial services, information and communications technology (ICT), medicine and construction. Business support organizations such as the Coalition of Service Industries, the Chamber of Commerce, and the Hotel and Tourism Association were also present.
CARICOM said there was also a similar turn out at the Grenada Consultation, both in terms of number of participants and sectoral representation. In the latter consultation, however, environmental services stakeholders were represented.

At their core, both consultations were formatted around presentations from Regional Unit staff, national authorities, and roundtable discussions/presentations led by select industry representatives. Each consultation also afforded an opportunity for participants to hear directly from Regional Unit staff and staff of national authorities as to what support and follow up can be expected coming out of the engagement.

There were themes common to both consultations that surfaced in the course of the deliberations; namely: (i) There is a need for further sensitization-oriented, awareness building consultations, and in this regard greater efforts are needed to engage stakeholders in a sector-specific manner. This outreach should also be directed at project proposal writing training, they said, to build the capacity of sectoral groups to tap into resources available to facilitate their deeper integration into the EPA implementation process; (ii) Advancing the identification of national technical assistance germane to EPA implementation, and stemming from this prioritization of relevant project interventions; (iii) In light of the above, further refining of respective States’ EPA Services work plans was deemed a priority.
In the margins of these Consultations, Unit staff met exclusively with officials with responsibility for EPA implementation, to further develop the respective States’ EPA Services work plans.