…says multi-scenario simulations prove this
PRESIDENT Bharrat Jagdeo said Guyana is ready to move forward with the Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA) signed with the European Union in October of 2008, noting that this is not the case for many other Cariforum States, some of which had been pressing for the pact while pillorying Guyana for its ultra-cautious stance. Responding to questions from media personnel at a press briefing on Monday, President Jagdeo said simulations came to Cabinet about the revenue loss that Guyana will suffer because of the movement in tariffs in compliance with the EPA. “It seems manageable…I have asked them to go back and look at the simulation for trade diversion. But I still think it will be manageable, and therefore I have asked to work at amending our Customs schedule to implement what we agreed in the EPA,” he said.
“Frankly speaking, some of the countries that were championing the EPA in Caricom have asked for delay in its implementation. The region should write more about that. Those who criticise us and were championing it, they have asked for a delay in its implementation. We feel we can handle its impact,” said President Jagdeo.   
The President said he is unaware of the status of the Implementation Unit of the EPA within the Caricom Secretariat and directed the questions to Minister of Foreign Affairs Carolyn Rodrigues-Birkett.
“I don’t know, frankly speaking, about the status of the Implementation Unit in Caricom for the EPA, but in Guyana’s case, we are meeting our commitments. We are one of the few countries that would actually implement the EPA,” he said.
The European Union 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. It had been called by the EU the first genuinely comprehensive North-South trade and development agreement in the global economy.
Guyana, however, had signed the agreement five days after the other countries of the region because of reservations about various issues, namely the concern that it will set Guyana 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 in matters of regional integration. The agreement prior to full commitment also had within it an understanding that the EPA would be reviewed every five years.
According to the EU, the EPA includes a package of measures to stimulate trade, investment and innovation, and to promote sustainable development, build a regional market among Caribbean countries and help eliminate poverty.
Giving a background to the agreement, the EU in a briefing paper, said for more than thirty years trade between Europe and the Caribbean has been based largely on ‘preferences’ – special tariff rates for selected goods.
“Unfortunately, these arrangements have not helped Caribbean economies diversify or strengthen their industries – the Caribbean exports less now than it did twenty years ago, and receives lower prices for those exports. Dependence on preferences is not a sustainable long term strategy for the region,” the EU brief stated.
It stated also that because they were extended unilaterally by the EU to the Caribbean in a way that discriminates between Caribbean developing countries and developing countries elsewhere in the world, the arrangements that the EPA replaces were not in conformity with World Trade Organisation (WTO) rules.
“In 2001, the EU and the Caribbean were given seven years by other WTO members to negotiate a new agreement that met WTO rules. That agreement is the Economic Partnership Agreement. Trade relations are now safe against legal challenge at the WTO by other developing countries,” the brief stated.
It explained that to comply with WTO rules, a trade agreement must open up “substantially all trade” between two partners.