(CARIFORUM Directorate, CARICOM Secretariat, Turkeyen, Greater Georgetown, Guyana) - Senior CARIFORUM officials recently met to discuss the simplification of the rules of origin governing trade in goods under the CARIFORUM-EU Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA).

The discussion took place during the Meeting of CARIFORUM Preparatory to the Fourth Meeting of the Joint Working Group on Simplification of the Rules of Origin and was chaired by Ms. Margaret Ventura, EPA Coordinator, Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade of Belize, the current Chair of CARIFORUM.

Under the CARIFORUM-EU EPA, CARIFORUM companies can export their products duty free, quota free to a European Union Member State. To benefit from this preferential treatment, companies must prove that their products are manufactured using processes or inputs agreed with the EU.

These agreed processes or inputs are usually referred to as originating criteria or Rules of Origin, and are contained in Protocol I to the EPA.