BRUSSELS, Belgium (Reuters):

The European Union (EU) and a group of Caribbean countries have agreed on a wide-ranging new trade deal, only days before an end-of-year deadline, the EU executive said yesterday.

The move marked a success for Brussels which, despite criticism from some African leaders and development campaigners, has pressed the African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) group of nearly 80 former European colonies to agree to the new deals.

The Caribbean agreement covered trade in goods, but also services - of high interest to the region and its tourism industry - rules on trade-related issues and development cooperation, the European Commission - the executive branch of the European Union - said in a statement.

The countries included Jamaica and the Dominican Republic plus a dozen smaller Caribbean states.

The rush for deals has come because a World Trade Organisation (WTO) waiver permitting the EU's long-standing preferential trade arrangements with the ACP countries, even though they break WTO rules, is due to expire on December. 31.

Without a deal, many of the ACP countries faced the prospect of immediately higher EU tariffs on their exports to the bloc.

Jamaica's Prime Minister Bruce Golding warned last Tuesday that US$72 million ($5.1 billion) in higher duties into Europe could be added to exporters' bills if the Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA) deal was not struck by year-end.

After five years of on-off negotiations, the EU has turned up the tempo and in recent weeks it has initialled deals with nearly 20 countries in Africa, the Indian Ocean region and the Pacific.

All of these other EPAs were mostly focused on trade in goods, ahead of further talks on issues such as services next year.