Today is the day and Guyana won

Oct 15, 2008 Peeping Tom

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Today is a day that has been on the calendar of just about every West Indian especially since the talk about the Economic Partnership Agreement began.
But Guyana’s fight was not in vain as it won a modification to the document. After Guyana’s fight, two new clauses were introduced which will see a periodic review and action as well as recognition to the Treaty of Chaguaramas. T
hese two clauses now make the document palatable to all. Silently, regional leaders would be applauding and people of Guyana and the region will sing praises loud.
The European Union within the past few years decided to revamp its trading pattern ostensibly because the World Trade Union ruled that it was engaging in unfair trading practices.
The first step was to reduce the price countries like Guyana earned for sugar sold to the EU. Then it introduced what it called the Economic Partnership Agreement to regulate the flow of goods to and from Europe.
There was a draft agreement which had to be negotiated and Guyana and the rest of the African Caribbean and Pacific countries sat around the table with the European negotiators who were not prepared to grant too many concessions.
The Europeans had devised the rules and they intended to see that these rules were what they wanted.
The team representing Guyana and the rest of the countries that form Cariforum tried their best and in the end they were content with the little they were able to secure. However, there were some clauses that Guyana found problematic and President Bharrat Jagdeo made it known that he was not happy with what was there.
Such was his discomfort that he announced that he would not sign the agreement as it stood, a decision that was initially supported by the main opposition party and by Haiti. Many of the local critics pounced on the fact that President Jagdeo had seen the final document and had ample time to raise any objections. Nothing could be further from the truth.
If indeed the EPA was all he had to study then that criticism could have withstood any challenge. However, there is a country to run and so many things to get right so that the people of this country could lead relatively comfortable lives.
Guyana took its objections to various forums without the support of the rest of the Cariforum countries.
The most recent forum was the meeting of the ACP countries and unless these leaders were crazy they readily included Guyana’s objections.
The EU also accepted them so that the document that will be signed today includes the modifications proposed by Guyana. If Guyana’s contentions had no merit there would have been no modification to the final document.
When Guyana made its objections known, immediately the EU bared its claws and began to talk about sanctions. Because of the volume of trade this country stood to lose US$90 million per annum and when added to what is already lost because of the Sugar Protocol the critics would have been quick to blame the government for the suffering that would have followed. Money is already scarce and losing close to US$150 million a year would have been catastrophic for the development of this country.
The exporters, most of them members of the private sector, would have suffered until they found new markets and this is not an easy task in today’s world.
But there is another side to all this. Because Guyana has the most to lose since it is the largest regional exporter to Europe it became necessary that the conditions were not unfavourable. The other regional countries are tourist-based destinations and banana exporters and so they were only concerned with the narrow aspects of the agreement.
Indeed, they had accepted what was presented earlier, now they are going to sign a document that Guyana influenced in no uncertain way.
This calls into question whether Guyana would rush to sign the document today. If President Jagdeo does not then it would appear that he is merely being bullish thus allowing the rest of the region to take credit for his work. He will however sign the document because it is more to Guyana’s liking.
Some are talking about Guyana being compelled to sign today because if it does not then the exporters would lose markets. These are the people who enjoy painting a Doomsday picture.
The truth is that there is no “drop dead” date to quote Foreign Affairs Minister, Carolyn Rodrigues. There is a suggested deadline of November 1.
What is worrying is the threat of sanctions. No country should be allowed to dictate to a sovereign nation but this has been done here and there are those among the Cariforum countries who actually behaved in a manner that was reminiscent of slavery when the house slave actually sided against the field slaves.
President Jagdeo reported that he learnt of the calls by some regional leaders to the EU heads to “put pressure on Guyana” so that they could look good. Uneasy lies the head that wears the crown and when today passes the critics will seek new avenues to level criticisms and blame at the government.
Notwithstanding, the EU had to bow to Guyana President’s representation and change the agreement. Once again, Guyana stands tall under the leadership of President Jagdeo.

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