We consider the approximate U(2)^3 flavour symmetry exhibited by the quark
sector of the Standard Model and all its possible breaking terms appearing in
the quark Yukawa couplings. Taking an Effective Field Theory point of view, we
determine the current bounds on these parameters, assumed to control the
breaking of flavour in a generic extension of the Standard Model at a reference
scale Lambda. In particular, a significant bound from epsilon'/epsilon is
derived, which is relevant to Minimal Flavour Violation as well. In the
up-quark sector, the recently observed CP violation in D -> pi+ pi-, K+ K-
decays might be accounted for in this generic framework, consistently with any
other constraint.Comment: 15 pages, 1 figur
