Legal Analysis of Services and Investment in the CARIFORUM-EC EPA: Lessons for other developing countries.

Abstract

This Research Paper is a legal analysis of the EC-Cariforum Services and Investment Chapter. It demystifies the many complex technical details in the EPA text and illustrates where this services and investment template goes beyond the WTO's GATS. The paper highlights implications for other developing countries embarking on similar negotiations with the EU. According to Professor Kelsey, "the malaise that has afflicted the global south as a result of the post - 2007 financial crisis in North America and Europe is a timely reminder that unrestrained global markets can have devastating economic and social consequences, and that governments have both the right and responsibility to regulate in the interests of their people. The crisis coincided with growing pressures and incentives for governments in the global south to bind themselves to a model of development based on the liberalisation, dereglation and globalisation of services and foreign investment and to restrict their regulatory autonomy through trade agreements."