Says regional divisions reflect dangerous fracture in Caribbean diplomacy
Retired Commonwealth Secretary General and former Guyana Foreign Minister Sir Shridath Ramphal has said that the proposed Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA) between CARIFORUM and the European Union (EU) “is anti-CARICOM, anti Caribbean integration and anti-Caricom Single Market and Economy (CSME)” and that the current regional divisions on the signing of the agreement is “a manifestation of a lack of cohesiveness and, ultimately, a lack of vision in terms of our priorities” that raises serious questions about how the cohesiveness of the Caribbean is going to be sustained. “We are behaving in a totally contradictory manner,” Ramphal said.
“If the EPA is inimical to Caribbean interests then why are we not standing up and telling Europe ‘hold on, we want an economic partnership with you and we want to preserve the interests of our products but there are limits you cannot expect us to commit ourselves to any action which endangers Caribbean integration. The EPA endangers Caribbean integration and that ought to be our starting point for any analysis,” Sir Shridath told Stabroek Business.
The elder statesman of Caribbean negotiators said that he was concerned that the Caribbean had decided to move in the direction of embracing the EPA without close consultation with the African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) Group. “The ACP was created here in Georgetown and yet the Caribbean is pursuing a path with Europe almost unmindful of the hesitations, reluctances and reservations of Africa and of the Pacific,” he added.
“It is unfortunate that even at this moment, even as we were part of the Group of 77 in Geneva, we are about to sign an EPA with Europe in which we give away to Europe all of those things which we were keeping not just from Europe but from the developed world as a whole. The trouble is that while the EPA is with Europe today it will be the basis for our relations with all of the developed world,” he added.
Sir Shridath told Stabroek Business that the current bitter divisions among regional governments over the signing of the EPA manifests a “loss of passion and commitment” on the part of Caribbean diplomacy …”because we think we perceive small gains in special deals. That is a terrible level of acquiescence in defeat”, Ramphal added.
