CARIFORUM-EU Economic Partnership Agreement

As described by the Convention secretariat in its document DCE/21/8.CP/11 for the 8th Conference of Parties, a sub-regional workshop entitled “Advancing Preferential Treatment for Culture” was held in Barbados on 6 and 7 November 2019 for the Caribbean region, in partnership with the CARIFORUM Secretariat. This was held in conjunction with the public launch of a study titled Culture in the CARIFORUM-European Union Economic Partnership Agreement: Rebalancing trade flows between Europe and the Caribbean? The two-day workshop, attended by the European Union delegation to Barbados, brought together more than 30 officials from intergovernmental and governmental agencies and cultural and trade professionals from Barbados, the Dominican Republic, Jamaica, Saint Lucia and Trinidad and Tobago. The workshop prepared an outcome document to inform future discussions on policies and measures required to better implement the Protocol on Cultural Cooperation, especially with regard to audio-visual co-productions and cultural exchanges, and the provisions of the EPA in relation to market access for entertainment services. Two large EU-funded programmes in the sub-region, “Transcultura: Integrating Cuba, the Caribbean and the European Union through Culture and Creativity” and “Creative Caribbean: An Ecosystem of ‘Play’ for Growth and Development”, will build on existing dynamics and aim to strengthen the capacity of Caribbean countries to make the most of the Protocol on Cultural Cooperation.