Ross Sheil, Staff Reporter
CLAYTON
Jamaica
is one of six countries chosen to test a new United Nations Environment Programme
(UNEP) approach to anticipate the impact of big development decisions, before
they take place.
Based at the University of the West Indies, Mona, the Caribbean Institute for Sustainable Development will field test the 'Integrated Assessment' methodology on the sugar industry.
The work will put Jamaica at the cutting edge of development policy, given that the final document will form UNEP policy worldwide, said Alcan Pro-fessor of Sustainable Development, Anthony Clayton.
"It is really about trying to develop the methodology to think through the implications of a big decision in advance, specifically about the effect of liberalisation on Jamaica, and we are using sugar as our testbed," explained Prof. Clayton.
The work comes at a time when Jamaican and other African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) sugar industries have been forced to restructure with the end of preferential trading support by the European Union (EU).
The professor, who also helped UNEP draw up the methodology, said that the fieldwork over 18-24 months will concentrate on the implications for poverty, environ-ment and the economy of liberali-sation in the sugar industry.
"If we can determine this pattern of change in advance, then we can put in place flanking measures to reduce the cost and pain of transition to a more competitive economy," the Professor said.
CARIFORUM (CARI-COM and the Dominican Republic) negotiators are in Brussels, Belgium this week to continue negotiations with the EU through the Economic Partnership Agreement to liberalise trade in goods and services between the two regions.
CARICOM is also considering the benefits of a bilateral free trade agreement with the United States and aiming to recommence negotiations with Canada for a similar bilateral arrangement in the first quarter of next year, said Dr. Richard Bernal, executive director of the Caribbean Regional Negotiating Machinery.
ross.sheil@gleanerjm.com
