ISDS Case Map
Caribbean
Setting aside the character assassination, suggestions that Caribbean heads had agreed a flawed document, letters questioning the role of senior figures and damaging inter-institutional rivalry, what is clear is that a more fundamental philosophical divide has emerged in the context of the EPA over the direction in which the region and its integration process is headed.
After opting out of Wednesday's signing, Guyana's President Bharrat Jagdeo now says the country is ready to take forward the Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA) with Europe.
The signing of the Economic Partnership Agreement between the European Union and the CARIFORUM Group - Caribbean Community states and the Dominican Republic - went ahead as planned. However, Guyana and Haiti, which had both expressed reservations about sections of the agreement, did not attend the signing ceremony in Barbados.
The many ploys that the European Commission has used to bulldoze Caribbean countries into signing the Economic Partnership Agreement with the European Union are coming to light.
It is imperative to continue with the mobilization so that Haiti remains part of the growing group which rejects the pressure being applied by the European Union for CARIFORUM members to sign the EPA at the next meeting, scheduled for 15 October in Barbados.
The heated debates in the Caribbean surrounding this region's involvement in an Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA) with Europe and the upcoming sixth summit of the African Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) countries in Ghana where similar issues will be debated, brings to memory the words of Ethiopian Emperor Haile Selassie who saw a long time ago the danger the European union -- then the European Common Market -- would pose for Africa.
Thirteen of the 15 Member States indicated their readiness to sign the Agreement at the Third Meeting of the Heads of State and Government of CARIFORUM held at the Sherbourne Centre, Barbados on Wednesday. Haiti indicated that there were reservations which had to be cleared at the Presidential level before signature of the document, while Guyana stated that it was not in a position to sign the EPA.
While it has been asserted that failure to conclude the agreement within the timeframe dictated by the E.C. would threaten Caribbean exports to Europe, we feel that our leaders should not be constrained to pursue a course of action which could prove to be adverse to our people in the long run.
To the man in the street, it seems that the EPA, and the debate on it, have split Caricom governments, and that the prospects for their arriving at some harmonious agreement at this week's Caricom meeting are not good.
Church leaders in the Caribbean have urged regional governments to reject the Economic Partnership Agreement proposed by the European Union, saying the terms of the treaty would harm the economy, marginalize the poor, and undermine the Caribbean's democratic institutions.
