Implications of the Cariforum-EC EPA, Norman Girvan
Updated 21 January 2008
The Cariforum-EC Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA) is more than just a trade agreement: its scope embraces many subjects that have up to now been solely or mainly within national and regional jurisdiction (Box 1). As a legally binding international instrument with elaborate implementation and enforcement provisions, it embodies a higher degree of supranational governance than those of the Caribbean Community. It will condition the scope and content of future agreements made between Caricom and other major trading partners and the region’s stance in WTO negotiations. It EPA sets up a framework for the future evolution of policies of Caricom states and the terms on which the region engages with the global community…
Reprinted in the Financial Gleaner
Implications of the Economic Partnership Agreement (Part 1, 25/01/08)
Modest concessions on development assistance, more intense competition on horizon (Part 2, 1/02/08)
Preference erosion stokes new export opportunities (Part 3, 8/02/08)
Supranational agreement binds Governments–CARIFORUM-EC Joint Council consenus decisions supreme (Part 4, 15/02/08)
EPA will kill region’s sovereignty
Letter published in the Sunday Guardian, February 10, 2008
Who knocks at the gate? Choosing the title of a Jackie Hinkson drawing, it is The Grim Sweeper. I’m reading Prof Norman Girvan’s paper published in the T&T Review (January 7). He examines the implications of the Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA) signed between the European Union and Caricom and the Dominican Republic.
To my simple ears, Girvan’s measured serious notes of warning about this harsh agreement suggest that a stealthy powerful Midnight Robber has opened the coffin for Caribbean sovereignty.
Before explaining that point, let us note in the same Review issue mentioned above there’s an article, Manufacturers welcome EPA, by Mahindra Ramdeen, trade specialist, TTMA. But even he concedes, “that a comprehensive agreement was signed, as opposed to an interim agreement that would have only secured coverage for trade in goods.”
He’s happy about that chapter, but (as I understand it) at least nine other chapters were rushed, to quote Girvan “under extreme pressure of time, with little or no opportunity for public discussion.”
Ramdeen continues, “Liberalisation/globalisation is here to stay, and trading in such an environment is a reality for our members.” Fair enough.
Girvan replies, “The principle of national treatment is entrenched in several parts of the EPA.”
He explains: “This rules out possibilities for governments to deliberately foster the formation and expansion of local and regional firms, and of small and medium enterprises in order to compete in global markets; which is one of the main objectives of the CSME.”
Girvan (former Secretary General of the ACS, and a major pan-Caribbean economist) writes:
“EPA contains a degree of ‘supra-nationality’ not even present in the Revised Treaty of Chaguaramas establishing Caricom and the CSME. At the apex will be a Joint Cariforum-EC Council … (the decisions of which) are binding on the parties that are obliged to take all measures necessary to implement them.
“This gives the joint council greater legal powers over member states than the Conference of Heads of Government of Caricom, Caricom’s Council for Trade and Development and any other organ of Caricom… There will be a Trade and Development Committee under the Joint Council…also endowed with specific legal powers over the actions of member states.
“Ironically, with virtually no consultations on the subject, Caricom governments will give a joint council set up with the Europeans the kind of legal authority it has been unable to agree on giving its own organs of governance!”
He then asks, “What does all this mean for the CSME?” and “…assuming the EPA is fully implemented, and especially if it becomes the template for other bi-lateral and multi-lateral agreements” Girvan says the “extreme scenario” in ten to 15 years “could render the drive to create a CSME an irrelevant and meaningless exercise.”
Well, Europe is here already—Arcelor Mittal, head office in Luxembourg; Bouygues—Batiment (France) local seafront skyscraper builder, headed by M Martin Bouygues (the billionaire who lent President Sarkozy his Bombardier jet to fly to Canada for a brief holiday after the election); Repsol YPF, which facilitated a meeting between the King of Spain and a regional leader.
The European/Caricom EPA was initialled in Barbados on December 16, 2007. And on April 15, 2008, it will—by the signing of ministers—be granted “provisional application” ie from that moment the signatories are not allowed to do anything that contradicts its provisions.
The next step is “coming into force” after ratification. The EPA then has legally binding effect. Countries must change their laws, regulations, practices and policies to comply with its provisions.
The Caribbean was the only one of the six ACP negotiating groups “to push ahead with the conclusion of a “comprehensive” EPA as opposed to a narrow “Trade in Goods” EPA. Girvan adds with pain:
“In some countries legal and constitutional changes of a lesser nature have been the subject of Parliamentary debate and approval and intense media exposure; and even national referenda. Such has not been the case with the EPA.”
Who has clearly failed whom? Who has relinquished what?