ACP states would be worse off with the EPA

Sep 03, 2008 Letters

DEAR EDITOR,
A number of CARICOM Heads of State, Sir Shridath Ramphal, the Girvan-Brewster-Lewis Memorandum, OXFAM, hundreds of academics, the Christina Taubira Report, among others, have heaped huge concerns on the Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA).

The Christiane Taubira Report on the EPA was commissioned by the French Government. On July 1, the French President Nicholas Sarkozy assumed the rotational Presidency of the European Union for six months.

And so given the French occupation of the European Union (EU) Presidency, the Taubira Report becomes significant, especially as it calls for an amendment to the EPA; while for some time now, the Girvan-Brewster-Lewis Memorandum has been signaling the need for renegotiation.

The Taubira Report issued 13 recommendations, but I will merely touch on a few of them. Among some of its recommendations are:

1. A call for a return to the fundamentals of the negotiations process;
2. Calls for renegotiation that will prominently locate ‘development’ within the EPA;
3. Counters the European Commission’s (EC) position to negotiate with the existing parameters to conclude the EPA in order to ensure that the EC’s take on development via aid for trade happens;
4. Calls for a paradigm shift in the relations between the European Union and the developing world;
5. Calls for the EC’s mandate to be redefined in shaping and concluding the EPA;
6. Wants regional communities to effect evaluations of the Lome Conventions and compare with the Cotonou Agreement to make certain that “no ACP state should find itself worse off than its present situation”;
7. Emphasises that there is no connection between inking the EPA and gaining access to the European Development Fund.

Let’s remind ourselves that under the Cotonou Agreement between the EU and ACP in 2000, the EU agreed to reduce the burden of poverty from the ACP countries. And so Taubira in her Report wants to know if the EU would now “abandon development as if it was a dangerous mirage and invite the ACP countries to throw themselves into the big bazaar of free trade.” We believe that if the EU abandons development, then it will sustain its dominance over CARIFORUM within the EPA.

But Norman Girvan believes that the EU will control the EPA, and so noted, “It seems to me that CARICOM will have no chance but to adapt its own regimes to the requirements and compliances of the EPA. In fact, why go through all the trouble and expense of having CSME . . . [because] the policies, laws and practices would have been changed to suit the EPA. What really will be left of the CSME? We would have surrendered our autonomy and policy-making in these areas to the requirements of the EPA compliance and with it much of our ability to pursue a development path.”

And so within this context of huge concerns being heaped against the EPA, we can very well understand President Bharrat Jagdeo’s position of seeking national consultations prior to inking the EPA.

The President is absolutely correct in advocating for the people’s inputs before endorsing a major trade agreement that will have implications, not only for Guyana, but for the entire CARICOM region.

Prem Misir

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