Left: Caricom trade negotiator Ambassador Richard Bernal.   Right: Carlo Pettinato, First Secretary, European Commisiion to Jamaica, says the EU expects progress on Cariforum negotiations by August. - File photos

John Myers, Jr., Business Reporter

The European Union is urging regional countries to finalise their negotiating stance by August, as it presses to meet a year-end deadline to conclude Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA) talks with Cariforum, agroup that includes Caricom and Dom-inican Republic.

The EPA will replace the soon-to-be expired Cotonou Agreement .

First secretary and head of section for trade, economics, politics and information at the European Commission Delegation to Jamaica, Carlo Pettinato said African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) countries, including Jamaica, must come to a consensus and sign off on the provisions for the EPA if the new trade agreement is to be implemented in January 2008.

Six separate EPAs

The EU is negotiating six separate EPAs with the ACP bloc, including Cariforum.

"We encourage the ministers to agree on an initial market access offer from the Cariforum side because we need it in order to continue our negotiations hopefully for the technical part of the negotiations to be rapped up by this summer because we need time to get the formal approvals at the Council from our side and ratifications in time for the end of the year," Pettinato said.

He pointed out that if the negotiations are not concluded for the EPA to be implemented for January "then we will have to apply the famous GSP (Generalised System of Preferences) which is a trading arrangement that we apply to developing countries but who are not particularly preferential partners like the ACP, so it's less favourable."

Another would be to seek a further extension of the current waiver that allows for the existing Contonou Agreement to operate until the end of December. But he stressed that it would not be easy and would be costly to the EU.

"So this is why there is a certain urgency not because we need this but because the famous WTO waiver which allows to continue in breach of the rules expires at the end of the year," he emphasised.

Head of the Caribbean Regional Negotiating Machinery (CRNM), Dr. Richard Bernal who is lead negotiator for Caricom - has consistently maintained the region's commitment to completing negotiations for the implementation of the EPA on time.

On the visit of director general of theWorld Trade Organisation (WTO), Pascal Lamy to Jamaica last month, regional trade ministers used the opportunity for a series of meetings to discuss the strategy going forward on the EPA talks.

Last month the European Union, proposed the removal of all existing tariffs and quota limitations on goods and services from all ACP countries, equalising their offer to the concessions to poor countries under the Everything But Arms agreement.

But the proposal has been viewed by some trade experts as a move by the EU to entice negotiators to settle quickly on the EPA.

No signal on proposal

Cariforum is yet to give a signal on the proposal. Dr. Bernal when contacted on Tuesday, said trade ministers of Cariforum had not yet completed their assessment and were to meet later this month to continue discussions.

However attractive the proposal might be, CARIFORUM is being careful not to agree to anything that would further put the region at a disadvantage because there is the feeling that the EU's proposal will require the group to reciprocate by throwing open its own markets, including the sensitive area of services.

But Pettinato said there was no basis for this concern.

"We have said it so many times. No, we are not offering this because we want you to offer the same thing,"he stressed. "This is a unilateral offer from us," he said.

That offer made April 4 covers all products, including agricultural goods like beef, dairy, cereals and all fruit and vegetables, with a phase-in period for rice and sugar.

There was no mention of bananas, another sensitive product over which the EU is facing yet another challenge from South American producers to fully liberalise.

Pettinato told the Financial Gleaner on Tuesday that the EU found the region's reaction 'interesting', saying even "when the EU is offering perhaps the widest possible liberalisation of all goods - agriculture and non-agricultural goods - into the EU market, even this is met with some degree of scepticism."

While accepting that ACPcountries would be required to also liberalise market access for the new EPA for it to be compatible with WTO rules, Pettinato said there is provision for all EPA regions to put forward a list of all the sensitive goods and services that they wanted excluded or protected.

john.myers@gleanerjm.com