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.
