ABSTRACT

The European Union (EU) is fully engaged in the negotiation of Economic Partnership Agreements (EPAs) with regional groups of its African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) partners. Even if several such EPAs have been concluded, only one has been concluded with a regional group, the EU-CARIFORUM EPA.1 Other such regional EPAs are still being negotiated. The purpose of this chapter is to shed some light on the position of labour standards in such agreements. It seems indeed, that the EU-CARIFORUM EPA reflects new ambitions of the EU with regard to the inclusion of strict and enforceable labour standards in its free trade agreements with third countries, particularly its ACP partners. The purpose of this chapter to is to wonder whether that really is the case. Can the EU-CARIFORUM EPA be used as a guide that indicates to us what the position will be of labour standards in the EPAs that are still on the negotiating table?