MINISTER of Finance Dr. Ashni Singh said it is incumbent on both government and the private sector to examine ways in which they can benefit from not only the Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA) between Europe and Cariforum, but also any other trade arrangements that exist. The minister yesterday delivered the feature address at the opening of an EPA sensitisation workshop hosted by the Guyana Revenue Authority (GRA) and the Ministry of Foreign Trade and International Cooperation at the Grand Coastal Inn, East Coast Demerara.
During the three sessions of the workshop, participants benefited from presentations on technical assistance and facilities under the EPA, the role of Customs and Trade Administration in the facilitation of trade, VAT and other duties and charges – administrations and penalties, documentation and procedures, and upcoming implementation activities under the EPA.
“I want at the very onset to congratulate the Guyana Revenue Authority and the National Competitiveness Strategy Unit for collaborating in organising this event and for convening the event, given the importance of the subject matter at hand,” he said. He also thanked the Ministry of Foreign Trade and International Cooperation for assisting with the workshop.
“The challenges are many, and they are multiplied many fold in a global context that is increasingly characterised by uncertainty and unpredictability. Historically, small economies are viewed and documented as having, generally speaking, limited opportunities for diversification,” he said.
“We have for some time in Guyana been advocating that [for] development solutions, a policy framework be defined by small states to suit their peculiar circumstances, and to enable them to overcome the challenges that they are faced with because of their smallness,” he said.
“We in Guyana have the good fortune that, despite our smallness, we have a number of advantages that would enable us to overcome the challenge of smallness, and we have as policy framework that is conducive to growth and development beyond the constraints of our smallness,” he said.
He said, for a long time, Guyana has recognized the importance of overcoming the challenge of its small domestic market and looking to the wider world in order to capitalise both in terms of trade in the traditional sense and in the non-traditional sense, such as the trade of services.
“We have recognized the importance of overcoming the challenges of a small and domestic market and are looking to the wider world to catalyse a level of growth that is not constrained by size,” the minister said.
He said that Guyana is strengthening links with its geographic neighbours as a part of the strengthening efforts. He said that before long, Guyana may become the food basket of the Caribbean.
“It is not by accident that we have exerted the level of effort that we have to strengthen the physical linkages that we have with our neighbours,” he said, citing the bridge across the Takutu River linking Guyana and Brazil, and the ferry that plies the Guyana-Suriname route.
“I view the EPA in the context of trade opportunity. Notwithstanding the reservations that we expressed at the time the EPA was being negotiated, we went to Parliament and legislated the provisions of the EPA. We are among the first of the Cariforum countries to have legislated the tariff adjustments required by the EPA as agreed,” he said.
Back in February, the National Assembly confirmed the Customs Amendment Order, historically making Guyana the first nation within CARICOM to meet the requirements for the EPA. The legislation will allow the phasing out of customs duties on a number of imports over time.
Dr. Singh said the order was necessary after negotiations between the CARIFORUM countries and the European Union (EU), which were concluded on December 16, 2007. Under the terms of that agreement, CARIFORUM negotiated a three-year moratorium, from January 1, 2008, to December 31, 2010, before effecting entry into force of the tariff liberalisation under the EPA.
The minister said that Guyana’s reservations as they relate to this agreement led to the inclusion, in the agreement, of a clause that requires mandatory reviews.
“Suffice it to say that we have now proceeded, in accordance with that agreement, to prepare the necessary tariff adjustment schedule under which adjustments, in summary 70 per cent of our import tariff lines from the European Union, are excluded from liberalisation. Sixty per cent of our import tariff lines will be liberalised immediately, that is to say, from the effective date of this order, and the remaining 23 per cent of imports will have their duties phased out over five to 25 years,” Minister Singh said on the confirmation of the order.
As this newspaper reported, the EU and countries of the Caribbean Region, in October 2008, signed the EPA, which was meant to strengthen ties between the two regions and promote regional integration in the Caribbean. The EU had called it the first, genuinely, comprehensive North-South trade and development agreement in the global economy.
Guyana, however, ratified the agreement five days after the other countries of the region because of reservations about various issues, namely, the concern that it will set this country and the region back economically, rather than propel them forward into regional integration.
Because of these concerns, Guyana ensured it secured a pre-condition agreement with the EU for the Treaty of Chaguaramas to take precedence over the EPA in matters of implementation and regional integration. The agreement, prior to full commitment, also had within it an understanding that the EPA would be reviewed every five years.
The EPA includes a package of measures to stimulate trade, investment and innovation, and promote sustainable development, build a regional market among Caribbean countries, and help eliminate poverty.
Giving a background to the deal, the EU, in a briefing paper, said, for more than 30 years, trade between Europe and the Caribbean has been based, largely, on preferences, special tariff rates for selected goods.