Economic Partnership Agreement….All that glitters is not gold; region not ready for reciprocity

Sep 10, 2008 News

– PNCR

All that glitters is not gold and the region is not ready for reciprocity given the different levels of development compared with Europe.
These were among the more pertinent comments made by the People’s National Congress Reform (PNCR) Shadow Finance Minister, Winston Murray, when he voiced his support for President Bharrat Jagdeo’s position as it relates to the Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA).
Murray was speaking at the recently concluded EPA consultations and pointed out that, “We are not in a state of development where we could handle reciprocity without injury to our people.”
Under the EPA, Europe will have 87 per cent access to regional markets to export its goods and services to the region duty free and compete with local commodities and services.
The Caribbean Forum of African, Caribbean and Pacific States (CARIFORUM) will also have access to export its services to Europe, but President Jagdeo has argued that the services such as banking and accounting, among others that the region has to offer, could not possibly compete with its counterparts in Europe.
In essence, according to Jagdeo, with the exception of the region’s singers, there was no service that could compete in Europe’s market.
Murray also publicly announced his party’s support for the region to push for a ‘goods-only’ agreement which would satisfy WTO compatibility and allow some time to be given to properly scrutinise the services aspect of the agreement.
“I like to say that we do not see the agreement as simply a favour being done by the EU…There is a long relationship where the Caribbean has given much to Europe…It has always been understood that given different levels of development that the agreement would be that of a preferential nature.”
He also noted that EU has to realize that many things are still unclear and at face value appear to be disadvantageous for the region.
“We don’t have enough information on benefits and costs.”
Today, President Jagdeo will be in The Bahamas where he will seek to garner support from regional heads and have them adopt Guyana’s position of a signing on to a goods-only agreement and meet with ACP leaders in October to properly scrutinize the EPA.
According to Jagdeo, a goods-only agreement has already been extended to some African countries, with a two-year grace period to commit to the comprehensive EPA.
The two-year grace period will be to completely review and renegotiate aspects of the agreement, if possible.
During the consultations, it was touted that if President Jagdeo was to garner enough support, there may be a possibility that the EU would have to review its position.
During the consultations, the Head of State also noted the fact that this region has had bad experiences with the EU, with a prime example being the unilateral decision to cease the sugar protocol, which has resulted in the country losing millions annually.
He queried the reason why, given that this deal was indefinite, the region would not be allowed to consult properly on it, pointing out that there was not even a social impact assessment done to ascertain the minute consequences of the agreement before formally committing to it.
It is also still unclear whether the EPA will take precedence over the Treaty of Chaguaramas in the event of a conflict.
The Treaty of Chaguaramas is the foundation of regional integration.

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