The European Union (EU) ought to live up to their commitment to the consultation provisions of the Cotonou and Economic Partnership Agreements (EPA), according to the Caribbean Forum (CARIFORUM) of African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) States.
During their meeting on Monday which preceded the Sixth EU-LAC Summit at the IFEMA Centre in Madrid, Spain, Prime Minister of St Vincent and the Grenadines, Dr Ralph Gonsalves, who spoke on behalf of CARIFORUM, said that the CARICOM Single Market and Economy was making strides despite the many challenges it faced, according to a release from the CARICOM Secretariat, Turkeyen.
CARIFORUM continued its efforts at deepening and expanding, with the membership of the Dominican Republic in CARICOM under consideration and the release said that significant in-roads had been made in respect of ALBA and the newly-created CALC.
In spite of those gains, Prime Minister Gonsalves told EU representatives, the Caribbean’s best efforts would come to ‘nought’ if the EU did not honour the consultation provisions of the Cotonou and EPA Agreements.
Dr Gonsalves also pointed out to the EU the importance of ensuring that their other bilateral trade agreements were not pursued at the expense of the Caribbean region.
He noted that it was essential that the EU facilitate the effectiveness of accompanying and support measures intended to provide relief to the Caribbean region and that they urgently undertake an assessment of the impact of trade liberalisation with Latin America on CARIFORUM countries, the release stated.
Food Security
Gonsalves then suggested that one area in which the EU could collaborate with CARIFORUM was that of food security. According to the St Vincent and the Grenadines Prime Minister, “agriculture remains an important contributor to rural development, GDP, employment and export earnings in our region. At the same time, the food import bill in CARICOM is more than US$2 billion annually. The returns to investment in agriculture in the region are dwindling at the same time the region is faced with volatile food and agricultural prices.”
Consequently, he suggested that a CARIFORUM Food Security Programme would benefit from support for a Bio-Security Policy, Agribusiness Development, Agricultural Health and Food Safety laboratories and systems.
Moreover, he said, innovative systems could contribute positively to food security in the region and he noted that there was significant scope for CARIFORUM-EU collaboration in a system which included capacity building for Sustainable Institutional Development; a Policy and Incentive Environment; and a Tripartite Collaboration.
“…while regional integration and cooperation are touted from the rooftops, as central pillars of ACP/EU and CARIFORUM/EU Cooperation, no provisions are made for access to V-FLEX and other such mechanisms by sub-regions like the OECS which desperately require such support,” Gonsalves was quoted as saying.
The Vulnerability Flex Mechanism (V-Flex) is a crisis Fund set up by the EU in December 2009 to cushion the blow of the global crises to some CARIFORUM countries. To date eleven African and two Caribbean countries have benefited from the Fund.
Gonsalves acknowledged the move by the EU for its initiative in creating the V-FLEX Mechanism, acknowledging that in doing so it had demonstrated leadership.
However he observed that the EU could further enhance its standing by increasing the resources available to the mechanism, expanding its duration and making provision for sub-regions like the OECS which had already moved to full monetary union.
And while expressing the region’s appreciation for the contribution of the EU to its efforts, Gonsalves warned that unless the EU is careful, it can undo the positive contribution by its unilateral actions and bilateral commitments on commodities to those outside of the ACP.
