T&T EPA position stays

Published: Wednesday September 10, 2008

Whatever the outcome of today’s Caricom heads of government meeting in Barbados, T&T is ready to sign the Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA).

So said Tanya Carr, communications specialist in the Ministry of Trade and Industry.

“T&T is ready to sign and we are waiting on everybody else,” she said.

She said T&T has the largest manufacturing sector in the Caribbean and it would be in the country’s best interest to sign the agreement.

Guyana, one of the Caricom countries that expressed concerns about the benefits of the EPA, said it would be signing a “goods only” agreement.

The issues of concern to Guyana President Bharrat Jagdeo included good faith negotiations, which he claimed the EU lacked, based on its unilateral denunciation of the sugar protocol and the absence of an assessment of the social impact the EPA would have on the region.

Baldwin Spencer, Caricom chairman and the Prime Minister of Antigua and Barbuda, said the EPA is not an agreement with Caricom, but with individual countries and the EU and that each country is free to sign if it agrees with the implications. Jagdeo is positive he will only sign a “goods only” agreement and will not go further.


Source: Trinidad Guardian Newspapers
http://www.guardian.co.tt/business2.html