THERE have been several important steps taken on the diplomatic front by Guyana, and many more are in train that will further raise the country’s profile.
Speaking to the media Monday in what was her first formal briefing for 2014, Minister of Foreign Affairs, Ms. Carolyn Rodrigues-Birkett said that in July, Guyana will assume the Chair of CARIFORUM, and that one of the main issues up for discussion is the impending reduction in concessionary financing from international funding agencies, which hinges upon GDP (Gross Domestic Product) per capita.“…We are saying that GDP per capita cannot be the only consideration in determining whether a country is doing well or not,” the minister said, adding that at the CARIFORUM level, “the grouping will continue to advocate in that regard.”
Another major issue on which Guyana is playing a key role is the Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA), signed in 2008 with the European Union (EU), the review clause of which, at Guyana’s insistence, will be presented with the findings of two studies, Minister Rodrigues-Birkett said.
One of the reports, the minister said, will be filed by the Economic Commission of Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC), and the other by an EU consultant. “Those reports should be out shortly…so we would be reviewing those reports as well,” she said.
And with Guyana also assuming the Chairmanship of the Council for Community and Foreign Relations of CARICOM in May, the minister said that a local meeting will be held for all of the foreign ministers within that grouping, and that among issues that will be discussed are CELAC (Community of Latin American and Caribbean States) membership and ways to maximise their presence.
“You will recall that the troika of the CELAC included the incoming Chair, the present Chair and the outgoing Chair, and what we felt was that the CARICOM Region would never be able… well, not in a hurry… to be on that troika because none of us had come forward to host CELAC or Chair CELAC, and so we made a request,” she said.
Noting that it was the Prime Minister of Trinidad and Tobago, Ms. Kamla Persad-Bissessar, who had put forward the proposal to expand the troika to a quartet, where the Caribbean would have a representative, Minister Rodrigues-Birkett said:
“The proposal has been accepted, and the troika has now been renamed as the Troika Plus,” or ‘The Quartet’, as is the new name by which it is now formally known”.
CARICOM’s relationship with the European Union will also be a topic for discussion, as well as the regional grouping’s ability to maximise its 14 votes at the United Nations General Assembly. It was pointed out that Guyana’s chairmanship of the Council of Trade and Development (COTED) will end in June this year, and the main line-item up for discussion will be the CARICOM/Canada trade negotiations that are on-going, according to Minister Rodrigues – Birkett.
“Last year, in September,” she said, “we received a formal notification from Canada that they would like those negotiations to conclude by December 2013, and that was impossible, given that we had agreed that we would have a number of additional negotiating sessions.”
Since then, she said, “we have agreed to conclude negotiations by June 2014…CARICOM is willing to be flexible but that must be reciprocal.”
The inputs of the local and regional private sectors in the international negotiations are sorely needed, and according to the minister, some of the challenges reside in the fact that CARICOM has no formal private sector body that is active. This is however being addressed and the minister is confident that there will be a formal private sector presence as the Region engages its international trading partners. (GINA)