BRIDGETOWN, Barbados (CMC):Caribbean Community (CARICOM) states have been warned not to expect a waiver of the December 31 deadline to sign a new trade deal with the European Union (EU).
EU Ambassador to Barbados and the Eastern Caribbean, Amos Tincani, said that with the time to reach agreement on the deal rapidly running out, the region must get its house in order.
"The mood is changing and I will not bet a single dollar on an extension on the waiver.
"The international climate has changed radically since some years ago. We had a wavier in 1975 because the preference was established in the first Lome Convention," Tincani told the Caribbean Media Corporation (CMC).
The ambassador said that with the changes on the international trade scene, the region will have to rise to the occasion.
However, he acknowledged that there were still major dis-agreements between the Caribbean and the EU on talks to replace the decades-old system which gave preferential treatment to Europe's former colonies in the region.
Access problems
He identified one of the contentious areas as that of market access.
"In order for bilateral agreements to be accepted within the World Trade Organisation (WTO) principles, it has to cover substantially all trade. Now what has happened, we had arguments whether the offer from the Caribbean was enough or not enough," Tincani said.
He said it is in the region's best interest to finalise the agreement quickly. Failure to do this, Tincani argued, would mean that Caribbean goods entering Europe will be under the Generalised System of Preferences (GSP), making their goods less competitive.
"It is factually wrong to say that no deal is better than a bad deal, because on the first of January the Generalised System of Preferences will prevent duty-free exports to the EU to a significant amount of products that are now exported duty free.
"No deal will be bad for the Caribbean and will be very bad for some of the countries that are currently exporting goods to the EU, such as Belize and Guyana, and to a lesser extent some of the countries of the subregion," the diplomat added.
Jamaica's Prime Minister Bruce Golding said on Tuesday that that country's producers may face bigger export bills, perhaps up to US$72 million more, because of higher duties in Europe.
CARICOM negotiators say they are hopeful of concluding the negotiations with the EU during talks in Barbados this week.
"The objective is to complete the EPA negotiations by the night of the 15th so that the region will not have to resort to the GPS regime which is more disadvantageous than having an EPA in place," CARICOM's lead negotiator Ambassador Richard Bernal said.
