Latest update May 14th, 2026 12:35 AM
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Guyana, EU meet in ongoing trade talks
Key talks to advance trade and bilateral relations between Guyana and the European Union (EU) took place yesterday with the two committing to further dialogue in a year’s time.
Guyana’s top trade officials and representatives of the EU meeting yesterday as part of the ongoing talks to advance trade and other areas of common grounds.
The EU has been a key trading partner with Guyana— rice, sugar and timber being the commodities exported locally.
According to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs yesterday, during a meeting at its South Road offices, the two “engaged in constructive, wide-ranging and frank discussions on bilateral, regional and international issues of mutual concern.
Discussions included political and economic developments in Guyana and the EU; EU-Guyana and regional development cooperation; human rights and governance; security, climate change, and regional integration.”
The objectives of the dialogue are to exchange information to foster mutual understanding and to facilitate the establishment of agreed priorities and shared agendas, in particular by recognising the existing links between the different aspects of the relations between the parties and the various areas of cooperation as laid down in the Cotonou Agreement.
The Cotonou Agreement is a treaty between the European Union and the African, Caribbean and Pacific Group of States (ACP countries). It was signed in June 2000 in Cotonou, the largest city in Benin, by 79 ACP countries and the then 15 member states of the European Union. It entered into force in 2003 and was subsequently revised in 2005 and 2010.
The Cotonou Agreement is aimed at the reduction and eventual eradication of poverty while contributing to sustainable development and to the gradual integration of ACP countries into the world economy. The revised Cotonou Agreement is also concerned with the fight against impunity and promotion of criminal justice through the International Criminal Court.
According to the Ministry, the previous rounds of political dialogue, under the agreement, took place in 2009 and 2010.
The Guyanese delegation was headed by Minister of Foreign Affairs, Carolyn Rodrigues-Birkett, and included Director General, Elisabeth Harper; Director Department of the Americas, Ambassador Audrey Waddell; Director, (Ag) Multilateral and Global Affairs Department Deborah Yaw; Director, Department of Foreign Trade, Rajdai Jaggernauth; Chief of Protocol; Esther Griffith and Acting Head of the Frontiers Department, Donnette Streete.
The EU side was headed by Ambassador Robert Kopecký, Head of the EU Delegation, and included British High Commissioner Andrew Ayre; Ambassador of the Federal Republic of Germany, Stefan Schlueter, and Beatriz Lorenzo Didic, Chargée d’Affaires a.i. at the Embassy of Spain, who are both resident in Trinidad and Tobago; and Carolle Lucas, Chargé d’Affaires a.i.at the Embassy of the France and Floor Nuiten, Political Counsellor at the Embassy of the Netherlands, both resident in Suriname. The Head of the Political Section in the EU Delegation to Guyana, Derek Lambe, also participated.
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