Dear Editor,
The stance taken by President Jagdeo over the Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA) with Europe needs to be put under closer scrutiny, having due regard to the processes employed in negotiating the agreement.
The Regional Negotiating Machinery (RNM) headed then by Ambassador Richard Bernal of Jamaica was designated by the Cariforum governments to negotiate the agreement with Europe. It is understood that each of the governments designated a ministerial representative to liaise with the RNM during the process of the negotiations and Minister Henry Jeffrey was Guyana’s designated Minister with the obvious objective to keep the Government of Guyana informed of the progress of the negotiations which extended over a period of years.
As is customary in the Caricom arrangements, it must be presumed that progress reports must have been presented by the head or other designated representative of the RNM to the two Caricom Heads of Government Meetings held annually informing the Heads of Government of progress being made in the negotiations with the EEC. Also, it is reasonable to assume that Guyana’s designated Minister must have kept the Government of Guyana informed of the progress of the negotiations with the EEC and the conclusions reached and in particular, the President.
The apparent belated objections by Guyana to provisions of the draft agreement must have taken the other governmental representatives by surprise and, perhaps, Minister Jeffrey himself. It is not surprising, therefore, that the other Cariforum governments did not seem receptive to Guyana’s belated reservations with the result that the stay of the process of formalizing the agreement did not find favour with the other Cariforum governments.
It is significant that Minister Jeffrey did not accompany President Jagdeo to the meeting of Caricom Heads of Government in Barbados, nor was he included in the Guyana delegation to the subsequent meeting of ministers of the ACP countries in Accra intended to present a united front to the EEC for changes to be made to the agreement. Eventually, with Guyana’s President signalling Guyana’s reluctance, to be a party to the agreement, agreement was reached to include two provisions in the agreement – firstly, a provision requiring a mandatory review of the agreement after five years of its entry into force and, secondly, a provision declaring that, in the event of conflict between the provisions of the EPA and those of the Revised Caricom Treaty, the latter must prevail. Firstly, one must credit the experienced RNM negotiators with the EEC with the foresight and commitment to ensure that the Caricom arrangements under the Revised Caricom Treaty were not being jeopardized.
Secondly, the provision requiring a mandatory review of the concluded EPA after five years of its operation is useful but it is not a novel provision. For example, there is such a provision (Article 240) in the Revised Caricom Treaty.
Recent disclosures highlighting differences between President Jadgeo and Dr Jeffrey over the EPA certainly suggest that Dr Jeffrey must have been taken by surprise by President Jagdeo’s seemingly belated stance with respect to the negotiated text of the EPA. Minister Jeffrey’s contributions in relation to the EPA at the recent meeting of Caricom ministers here in Guyana were also very interesting and informative. The representatives of those interest groups who participated in the national consultation at the International Convention Centre and gave their support to President Jagdeo followed by their presence in Barbados at the time of the meeting of the Caricom Heads of Govern-ment must also be reflecting on this turn of events.
Yours faithfully,
(Name and address supplied)
