Guyana will sign EU trade deal after national dialogue
GuyanaLive.com | 03 July 2008
Guyana will sign EU trade deal after national dialogue
Guyana will not sign the Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA) until it has completed a full national consultation or alternatively "pragmatically earlier if the EC [European Commission] continues with its bully-boy tactics of seeking to impose tariffs on our exports," President Bharrat Jagdeo said.
Cariforum - Caricom and the Dominican Republic - and the European Union (EU) are to sign the EPA, which has already been negotiated. President Jagdeo also said that Caricom needs to plan a strategy to present to the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen in 2009 given its vulnerability to natural disasters.
Speaking at the opening ceremony of the 29th Conference of Caricom Heads of Government in Antigua and Barbuda last evening, Jagdeo, who was among three heads to speak along with Caricom Secretary-General Edwin Carrington, said the EU was using the imposition of tariffs as a threat. However, he said, "I will sign after broad consultations or if they seek to impose the tariffs because I cannot destroy my export sector." He opined that Cariforum should agree to a goods-only agreement. Stating that he was not blaming anyone for the EPA negotiated by the Caribbean Regional Nego-tiating Machinery (CRNM), he said he felt the region should do only what was necessary to make it World Trade Organisation (WTO)-compatible as agreed to in the Cotonou Agreement.
Contending that the region has broken the African, Caribbean and Pacific solidarity forged by the Lome Convention, Jagdeo said, "We should forge greater solidarity with those countries which have initialled partial EPAs and those which have not initialed anything so far." Restating his opinion on the double standards used by the EU in protecting sugar in Martinique and Guadeloupe, he said the region was seduced by the rhetoric of free trade that is not practised in the developed world.
He said he was not ashamed to argue for preferences for the region and would continue to do so. There was enough justification to do so, he said, as the developed world has concluded that the region’s trade was a minuscule part of global trade. In addition, in terms of natural disasters, the region was the most vulnerable and its economy depended on one or two productive sectors making it vulnerable and volatile.
Stating that Caricom was not a party to the EPA and the agreement would be between individual countries and the EU, he said there was cause for concern in terms of intra-regional competition and fragmentation as well as a ’Most Favoured Nations’ clause. In addition, he said that the EPA would define the region’s external trade policy with the USA, Canada and countries in the WTO. He questioned whether the region had the capacity to enact 336 pieces of legislation to implement the EPA as well as the 300 identified to implement the Caricom Single Market and Economy.
As lead head with responsibility for Agriculture, Jagdeo spoke of the success of the regional agricultural investment forum in terms of networking held in Guyana last month but said he was disappointed with the lack of high-level participation.
Climate change
On the issue of climate change, he said the region must craft a strategy leading to Copenhagen and restated his position that account be taken of the contributions of the 30 million hectares of standing forests in Guyana and Suriname which help in mitigating climate change.
On the issue of remaining intellectually competitive, he spoke at length about the knowledge-based world and computer literacy, which could be the base for the production and export of ideas from the region. He thanked the government of Antigua and Barbuda for allowing Guyanese to visit and work there and expressed the hope that good care is taken of them until Guyana’s changing economic circumstances brought them back home.
On free movement, he condemned the harassment of the region’s people and the humiliation suffered at ports of entry and contended, "we treat foreigners better than we treat our own people." Calling the harassment of citizens unacceptable, he said the CSME would be a failed enterprise if people were not treated in a dignified manner.
Jamaica’s Prime Minister Bruce Golding, attending his first Caricom Heads of Government summit, reaffirmed Jamaica’s commitment to Caricom stating that the island was determined to play its part in realizing the objectives of the movement.
In his welcome address, Prime Minister of Antigua and Barbuda Baldwin Spencer noted that the conference needed to address the issue of travel and airlift and the effect on tourism, the economic mainstay of the region, given the increase in airfares and reduction of airlift to the region by international carriers.
Like Jagdeo, Golding and Carrington who noted the need for the leaders to look at issues of alternative energy costs, food security, and climate change, Spencer said that the issue of the brain drain continues to impact on the region and needs to be addressed in terms of globalisation.
Welcoming the heads and saluting the awardees of the Caricom Order and the Caricom Triennial Award for Women, Spencer suggested that the former Prime Minister of Jamaica PJ Patterson and former the President of Cuba Fidel Castro were also deserving of the Caricom awards for their contribution to the region’s development. Carrington, who outlined the conference agenda, which includes issues of crime and security in addition to rising costs of food prices and energy costs, gave an outline of the achievements of Caricom over the past 35 years since its founding.
Among the special guests at the opening ceremony were Commonwealth Secretary General Kamlesh Sharma and Secretary General of the Organization of American States Jose Miguel Insulza.
