Prime Minister Bruce Golding. - File

Bouyed by parliamentary approval at home, Prime Minister Bruce Golding is expected to tell CARICOM colleagues at a special meeting in Bridgetown today that Jamaica will not back away from the new free trade pact with Europe, even as the debate rages among neighbouring islands on whether to sign the agreement.

Golding's office pointed to the substantial market that Europe represents in the release announcing the Barbados visit.

No mention was made in the statement of the disagreement that Jamaica has with Trinidad's timing on the latter's push for a political union with several OECS countries, but foreign relations sources say the issue will likely be raised - perhaps on the margins - of today's meeting.

Venting the issue

Indeed, the Barbados confab - a conference of heads of government - is the very forum Golding had hinted was needed to fully ventilate the issue and its wider implications for Caribbean integration.

Several signing dates for the Cariforum-EU Economic Partnership Agreement have, since July, been set and thrown out, as some Caribbean governments demand more time to consult with advisers and voters.

Jamaica, Dominican Republic, Trinidad, Belize and The Bahamas are reportedly onboard.

On Tuesday, Dominica also said it would sign despite opposition at home.

Guyana said it would agree only to a part of the pact.

St Lucia and Grenada still aren't ready.

They have another month and a half - the agreement must be signed by October 31 - to decide. The other option is to be treated as a GSP partner, which means competing on price and quality with other international traders.

Having held its public consultations last week, word is that Guyana, which has been the most vocal CARICOM state against the pact saying it makes too many concessions to Europe and would in the long run hurt Caribbean commerce, is inclined to sign only that part of the agreement dealing with trade in goods.

But whether that plan is possible under the agreement as crafted could not be immediately verified as neither Caribbean Negotiating Machinery nor EU officials in Jamaica were immediately available for comment.

The EPA also covers services, investment, competition and development assistance. But one of its more worrisome provisions is the Most Favoured Nation or MFN clause, which Caribbean countries fear will be exploited later by other free trade partners demanding similar concessions to those afforded Europe on market access.

Opening up to European trade

Caribbean economies are to be opened up to European trade on a phased basis, covering two decades.

Jamaica's House of Representatives last week approved a resolution endorsing the decision to sign the EPA, which was negotiated last December.

The European Union represents a market of 490 million people, but critics of the agreement say that regional businesses are too small to adequately exploit such large markets, and that those companies that are able to compete will likely become takeover targets by larger European corporations.

Barbados' Prime Minister David Thompson, host of today's 14th special meeting of CARICOM Heads, has already signaled that the talks were not about renegotiating the agreement, but finding common ground on which to proceed.

business@gleanerjm.com