Christ Church, Barbados – Member States of the Caribbean Forum of African Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) States (CARIFORUM) and the European Community (EC) assembled in Barbados at the Sherbourne Conference Centre yesterday October 15, 2008 to commemorate the beginning of a new chapter in the history of their economic relationship by signing of the CARIFORUM-EC Economic Partnership Agreement.
This new WTO compatible trade agreement, which was initialed on December 16 2007, is expected to stimulate the sustainable development of CARIFORUM economies by helping CARIFORUM to export more and thereby increase business opportunities, employment and economic growth.
All CARIFORUM Members States, with the exception of Haiti and Guyana signed the agreement. The Government of Guyana is expected to sign soon. However, the Government of Haiti, which has been heavily occupied with addressing national stabilization and recovery in the aftermath of recent tropical hurricanes, has requested more time to review the Agreement.
The signing ceremony featured several addresses which included deliveries by His Excellency Edwin Carrington, Secretary-General of CARIFORUM; The Hon. Gareth Thomas, Under Secretary of State of the United Kingdom Department for International Development (DFID); and Siim Kallas, Vice President of the European Commission.
The Feature Speaker, The Hon. Chris Sinckler, Minister of Foreign Affairs, Foreign Trade and International Business of Barbados, delivered an address which not only commended the work of the negotiators but also endorsed the mammoth contribution of his predecessor Dame Billie Miller to the EPA negotiation process.
During his presentation, the Minister was clear in making the point that the region’s task ahead must be to implement the Agreement.
“Our task now is to set in motion a CARIFORUM wide process at both
regional and national levels to create effective mechanisms and structures to
allow each and every country in this region to take advantage of the
opportunities which this EPA presents.”
These sentiments were also supported by CRNM’s Director-General Ambassador Henry Gill during a Press Conference which immediately followed the signing ceremony.
Ambassador Gill expressed that the Implementation of the Agreement will be a difficult task and will certainly be more difficult than the negotiations. He further explained that national implementation units which will be charged with the responsibility of carrying out national EPA implementation plans must be quickly established. He also opined, that the private sector should also devise their own implementation plans..
