(CARICOM Secretariat, Turkeyen, Greater Georgetown, Guyana) The Government of Grenada recently informed the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) Secretariat of the establishment, on 15 April 2011, of its National Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA) Implementation Unit. The unit falls under the Office of the National Authorising Officer of the European Development Fund, Ministry of Finance, Planning, Economy, Energy and Cooperatives.

The Adviser to the Secretary-General on the Implementation of the EPA and Head of the EPA Implementation Unit of the CARICOM Secretariat, Mr Branford Isaacs, hailed this development as a significant achievement not just for Grenada, but for CARIFORUM at large.

He explained, “as respective CARIFORUM States strengthen their EPA implementation capacity, CARIFORUM will be better positioned to advance on EPA implementation.”

A number of CARIFORUM States have established EPA implementation units, while others are in the process of doing so. Some CARIFORUM States have opted to take a different approach to EPA implementation, which does not involve the establishment of dedicated EPA implementation units.

The newly-established Grenada EPA Implementation Unit has called on the Implementation Unit in the Secretariat for assistance in the development of its work plan. The Specialists in the EPA Implementation Unit of the CARICOM Secretariat will be mobilised to render this assistance and seek to ensure that the Grenada Unit and the regional Unit have a common focus and work together for the implementation of the CARIFORUM-EU EPA.

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.

CONTACT: Nand C. Bardouille
Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA) Implementation Unit
nbardouille@caricom.org