7th November 2019

Launch of new study on cultural trade policies for the Caribbean in Barbados

By CDF

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PRESS RELEASE - The Cultural Development Foundation and Saint Lucia was this week represented by Executive Director Mrs. Raymona Henry-Wynne, Yvonne Agard of the Saint Lucia Coalition of Services and Suzette Lewis Jean; DPS Ministry of Tourism, at a regional workshop held at the Hotel Hilton in Barbados on the occasion of the launch of the Study “Culture in the CARIFORUM-European Union Economic Partnership Agreement: Rebalancing trade flows between Europe and the Caribbean”.

The two-day workshop (6-7 November, 2019) on preferential treatment organized by UNESCO for intergovernmental and governmental officials as well as culture and trade professionals from Barbados, Dominican Republic, Jamaica, Saint Lucia and Trinidad and Tobago, had as its aim, for participants to acquire an in-depth understanding of the commitments on preferential treatment that flow from Article 16 of the 2005 Convention, as well as assess and discuss its potentialities and implications for the Caribbean region.

CARIFORUM-European Union Economic Partnership Agreement concluded in October 2008 between CARIFORUM States and the European Union and its Members States, was one of the first North/South regional trade agreement compatible with WTO rules seeking to effectively improve market access opportunities and ensure wider and more balanced exchanges, with the inclusion of a Protocol on Cultural Cooperation largely inspired by the 2005 Convention objectives.

The study (“Culture in the CARIFORUM-European Union Economic Partnership Agreement: Rebalancing trade flows between Europe and the Caribbean”) reveals that the opportunities arising from the CARIFORUM-EU EPA provisions have not been fully exploited and that its Protocol on Cultural Cooperation has yet to be activated – especially in the areas related to the movement of artists and audio-visual co-productions.

The question and answer sessions, after each presentation, served to contextualize the various issues discussed; (digital, copyright, relevance of preferential treatment for cultural exchanges in the digital environment and institutional setup currently in place to implement the EPA in signatory countries), and see how they relate to the challenges faced in the Caribbean region.

The workshop was facilitated by Véronique Guèvremont, Professor at the Faculty of law, Laval University (Québec, Canada) and holder of the UNESCO Chair on the diversity of cultural expressions, and Mira Burri, Senior Lecturer and Managing Director for Internationalisation at the Faculty of Law, University of Lucerne (Switzerland).

The workshop also involved representatives of the CARIFORUM-EU EPA Implementation Unit and Keith Nurse, World Trade Organization Chairholder and Principal/CEO of the Sir Arthur Lewis Community College, Saint Lucia.

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