IPS-English TRADE: Caribbean Digs in Heels on European Deadline
 
Date: Mon, 19 Nov 2007 15:15:46 -0800


 
Peter Ischyrion

PORT OF SPAIN, Nov 19  (IPS)  - With the Dec. 31 deadline nearing
for former European colonies to sign sweeping new trade agreements
with the European Union, the Caribbean bloc says outstanding issues
remain on the table and it may seek a postponement -- something the
EU has steadfastly resisted.

The so-called Economic Partnership Agreements, or EPAs, replace a
special export regime for cane sugar and other economically critical
goods from the 79-member African, Caribbean and Pacfic (ACP) group
of states in place since the mid-1970s.

The ACP has been operating under a special seven-year waiver from
World Trade Organisation rules, but it expires at the end of the year.
Countries that fail to complete new EPAs in time could face higher
tariffs on goods exported to the EU.

”Some progress has been made on the development dimension of the
economic partnership agreement, but much more work needs to be done,”
said Ralph Gonsalves, the St. Vincent and the Grenadines Prime Minister,
who added that the Cariforum (the 15-member Caricom and the Dominican
Republic) negotiators have now been given a new mandate.

”Market access issues are among the critical [issues] and there's
going to be, on Nov. 30, another meeting and we will see what happens
then,” Gonsalves added following a meeting of regional leaders in
Barbados over the weekend.

One of the main stumbling blocks in all the EPA talks has been the
extent to which the developing nations must open up their economies
to tariff-free goods from the EU. Gonsalves said it was better for
the region to take time to reach an agreement that is in the best
interest of the people, rather than merely meeting the deadline. 

”We are being very practical and understanding the circumstances
where we are and what are the downsides for not concluding an agreement
by the end of the year, but at the same time not rushing it for the
sake of just having an agreement,” he said.

Late last month, Peter Mandelson, the European Union's top trade
official, went before the European Parliament to concede that some
of the six regions now in negotiations were unlikely to meet the Dec.
31 deadline.

Mandelson added that the EU's objective remains the same -- conclude
comprehensive trade deals that are compatible with World Trade Organisation
rules ”but also cover other issues in order to maximise their development
potential”.

These issues include services and investment and trade-related areas
such as trade facilitation, intellectual property and cooperation
on competition policy.

While he did not publicly warn the ACP countries that they must finalise
the agreements by the end of this year, Mandelson said that those
who did so would benefit from the full development potential of these
agreements.

”They will enable us to target European Development Fund funding
at the commitments ACP countries have taken,” he said. ”And they will
set the clear priorities that European member states need to help
them direct their additional 'aid for trade' commitments” -- about
one billion euros by 2010.

”Negotiations towards full EPAs are more advanced in some regions
than in others. The Caribbean and Central African regions in particular
have come a long way towards finalising a full EPA even if important
work remains to be done. The Pacific grouping is also reasonably well
advanced,” he told the European Parliament in late October.

But Caribbean Community countries have now given their clearest indication
that it is very unlikely a new EPA will kick in at the start of next
year.

”It's not impossible -- but difficult,” said Gonsalves.

Prior to their meeting in Barbados on Friday, the regional leaders
had been urged by prominent Caribbean nationals to move for a postponement
of the year-end deadline.

The one-page ”Open Letter on the EPA” was also copied to Barbados
Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade Minister Dame Billie Miller, who
chairs the EPA negotiations for CARIFORUM and Ambassador Richard Bernal,
the lead negotiator and Director General of the Caribbean Regional
Negotiating Machinery (CRNM).

The letter was signed by Norman Girvan, the former secretary general
of the Association of Caribbean States and now a professional research
fellow at the University of the West Indies (UWI); Judith Wedderburn
of the Jamaica-based Coalition for Community Participation in Governance;
Havelock Brewster, professor at UWI's Institute of Social and Economic
Research and James Moss-Solomon, a former president of the Caribbean
Association of Industry and Commerce (CAIC) and who now heads the
Caribbean Business Council.

In their letter, the prominent Caribbean nationals said that every
effort should be made ”as a matter of urgency, at the highest political
level, to initiate action towards a postponement of the Dec. 31, 2007
deadline for the signing of the EPA by directly alerting the World
Trade Organisation, as well as by direct intervention with individual
EU states, the EU parliament and other concerned interests in Europe”.

The latest round of negotiations is due to take place later this
month, even as CARIFORUM negotiations acknowledged that the talks
held in Jamaica Oct. 29 to Nov. 6 were intended to be the final round
of technical negotiations.

”It is becoming increasingly clear however, that the deadline for
completion of the negotiations in time for the entry into force of
the EPA by Jan. 1, 2008 is now in jeopardy,” the CRNM said in a statement.

”Another round of technical negotiations has been scheduled for the
end of November to resolve the outstanding issues of the negotiations,
in particular those relating to tariff liberalization, which continues
to be the main subject of disagreement in the negotiations,” it said.

It said that Europe is preparing a ”regulation for an interim goods
agreement” that will be available exclusively to those ACP countries
that have finalised EPA negotiations in 2007.

”An annex will list the countries that will benefit from this trade
regime. At present, no countries are listed in the annex. However,
the EC has cautioned that it can retain this 'empty shell' until mid-November
but beyond this timetable, there can be no guarantee for 'latecomers'.”

 The CRNM said that Europe has advised that if the ACP countries
were not included in the transitional arrangement, they would have
to resort to the Generalised System of Preferences regime, adding
”this would put the exports of CARIFORUM at a disadvantage”.

But despite these concerns, Bernal has said that if the negotiations
were to be completed by the end of 2007, the meetings at the end of
November ”are the last opportunity to accomplish this task”.

However, he has also made it quite clear that ”under no circumstances
will CARIFORUM sacrifice the quality of the agreement to meet any
given schedule”.



*****
+ TRADE-AFRICA: ”EU Inflexible Towards Most Vulnerable Countries”
(http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=40085)
+ Q&A: 'Caribbean Closer to Deal With Europe, But Not There' (http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=39801)
+ EPAs - Opportunities and Risks (http://www.ipsnews.net/new_focus/epas/index.asp)


(END/IPS/EU/CA/IF/IP/DV/EP/PI/KS/07)


 
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