The signing of the Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA) between Cariforum countries and the European Union (EU) is expected to go ahead in Barbados next week, despite the ACP summit’s Accra Declaration which calls for a troika to meet with high level EU stakeholders on the EPA by the end of this month.
The signing of the agreement is likely based on indications that neither Cariforum nor EU member states will object to a joint draft declaration in which two main pre-conditions of Guyana are addressed and to which they are all due to arrive at a consensus today. The two main pre-conditions are that the EPA will not take precedence over the Caricom Single Market and Economy (CSME), and that the EPA would be reviewed five years after the date of signature and every five years thereafter.
The draft declaration was prepared following discussions between the Guyana government and the EU subsequent to previous communication between Caricom Secretary General Edwin Carrington to then European Commissioner for Trade, Peter Mandelson advising that Guyana was prepared to sign onto the ‘Trade in Goods’ section of the EPA which would make it WTO-compatible.
A source close to the negotiations told Stabroek News that so far the Cariforum leaders see nothing wrong with the pre-conditions, which appear to be a face-saving exercise on the part of Guyana–the only country to have objected to the signing of the EPA in its current form. Guyana, like the other Cariforum countries, had previously initialled the agreement in December last year.
Meanwhile, ACP Heads of State and Government, who attended the ACP Heads of Government summit in Ghana over the past weekend, have agreed to engage in high-level consultations on the EPAs being negotiated between the EU and the six regions found within the ACP. To this end, they have instructed the President of the ACP and the Secretary-General to explore modalities for conducting this high-level engagement with key stakeholders in the EU by the end of this month. They have also instructed the ACP Council of Ministers to consider the creation of an ACP Free Trade Area.
According to the communiqué issued at the end of the ACP summit, the Heads expressed concern that the process has split the ACP group into countries that have initialled interim or full EPAs and those that have not initialled any agreement, while most have expressed concerns about the process and content of the EPAs. They also expressed concern about undue pressure being put on some ACP countries to move forward to signing and ratification of interim or final EPAs, before legitimate concerns have been adequately addressed in a way that creates conditions for all ACP countries to become part of agreements and genuinely contribute to growth, development and the advancement of regional integration.
They also expressed a determination to safeguard and further enhance unity and solidarity, to ensure that the EPAs are inclusive, foster regional integration and provide tangible development benefits for their peoples. They stressed that in order to smooth the process for finalization of the EPA negotiations, the European Commission and its member states must take account of the interests and concerns of all member states.
It should be noted, however, that with the exception of the President of Suriname, Ronald Venetiaan, other Cariforum leaders, which include those of Caricom countries and the Dominican Republic, did not attend. In Guyana’s case, Minister of Foreign Affairs Carolyn Rodrigues represented President Bharrat Jagdeo and took his message to the meeting.
Once I challenged the article by Sr Coxall, but after I did more research he had to be given the better of the doubt. Our president has to make a decision in the interest of all/all Guyanese. Don’t be forced into later regrets.
Here we go again. What is Guyana doing? This is absolutely rubbish. The two pre-conditions proposed by Guyana for signing (that the EPA will not take precedence over the Caricom Single Market and Economy (CSME) and that the EPA would be reviewed five years after the date of signature and every five years thereafter) are really trivial and does not represent any gravity of the fundamental disagreement President Jagdeo has with the EPA, which is everything except the “Trade in Goods” section. This is the kind of business we engage in as politicians: make a set of useless noises to be notices, boil down to low gravy when the gravity of our selfishness and the damage to our reputaion and country becomes visible. I see the preconditions as an attempt to wipe the eggs off his face when he turns up to sign in Barbados. His colleagues Heads will have the decency of not holding their noses.
Can any one tell me how the review of the EPA every five years will advance Jagdeo’s claims about the negative impact the EPA will have on Guyana and ‘his people’? How long did the EPA take to be negotiated? Do we think that any revision would take less time? What absoulute nonsensical timeline. Which is why the EU agreed and did not object. Guess he believes Guyana’s concerns alone would be reviewed. He forgets that the EPA is between CARIFORUM and the EU and not Guyana and the EU.
Then there is the piece on the EPA not taking precedence over the Caricom Single Market and Economy (CSME). I have not seen any where in the Agreement where it is explicitly stated that the EPA will take precedence over the CSME. I hope Mr. Jagdeo understand that there is a reciprocity issue involved here. That it was not make explicit in the text of the Agreement speaks to two issues in my mind, at this time.
Firstly, that there was no alignment between the region’s direction and that of where the partnership agreement will take us in a key strategy for developing future trading relations. Let’s examine this. This begs the question of what guidance were given to the negotiators by the Heads. I suppose that their thinking was that the CSME would have been the corner stone of intra-regional activities in movement of goods, services, investments and skills. Of course, this is the correct thinking and therefore there was no need to have an explicit statement of the precedence of the CSME vis a vis intra regional integration activities. So including this as a pre-condition is rhetorical….well if you consider this as substance then score one for Jagdeo.
Secondly, let’s assume that the CSME will operate alongside the EPA. Do we have an answer for an European firm dominating the investment space in the region. Digicel is a very good lesson of what can happen to Caribbean firms (C&W I think is British). The Europeans would be crazy not to allow for the CSME, it allows then market penetration, especially in an areas where Jagdeo has problems, that is, in investments and services. Which is why I contend that jagdeo has problems with investments and services for different reasons far devoid of mainstream logic and more self-interest and preservation of a poor system of accountability.
So what is Guyana really doing? Can someone convince me that this guy knows what he is doing in the interest of Guyana and the wider Caribbean. Or is he only about personal aggrandizement (maybe Caribbean man of the 21 century??)Just convince me and I’ll give the credit where it’s due.
They are right to put in the CSME clause. Each caricom country is signing as individual country not as a body, only the EU is signing as a body, so they don’t care about CSME.
WHOEVER WANTS TO SIGN LET THEM SIGN. IF MR. JADGEO DONT WANT TO SIGN HE SHOULD BE SUPPORTED BY HIS CUNTRY PEOPLY. BLESS HIM
“The signing of the agreement is likely based on indications that neither Cariforum nor EU member states will object to a joint draft declaration in which two main pre-conditions of Guyana are addressed and to which they are all due to arrive at a consensus today. The two main pre-conditions are that the EPA will not take precedence over the Caricom Single Market and Economy (CSME), and that the EPA would be reviewed five years after the date of signature and every five years thereafter.”
Simply put, after revision in (5) years changes can be made to the EPA.
Just imagine this and this “academia” Jagdeo saying ” I am not signing the EPA” His ego and personal opinions matters over national issues in Guyana that is the main reason we continue to be in the rubble and almost obsolete state we are in.
Jagdeo needs to get out of his state of osmosis.