Now that Guyana has chosen to stand alone in favour of signing a partial (goods only) Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA) with the European Union (EU), instead of the complete negotiated text, question is how will this development impact on relations among Community leaders and affect plans for the transformation of Caricom into a single economy, as envisaged for 2015?

Wrong House: A security team looking for the home of embattled dancehall DJ, Vybz Kartel, last week turned up with a search warrant at this house belonging to Deputy Police Commissioner Mark Shields. Police Commissioner Rear Admiral Hardley Lewin has since apologised to Shields for the blunder. (Photo: Garfield Robinson)

Passion to embrace the signing of the full EPA as initialled last December was evident at last week's special Caricom Summit in Barbados from Prime Ministers Bruce Golding and Barbados' David Thompson's contention of "the best deal" the region could have secured, to President Bharrat Jagdeo's claim of an accord that "has some good features but also some horrendous provisions".

Of immediate concern is how will Caricom engage Guyana, ahead of the date for signing off on the EPA next month, in order to overcome divisions from spreading into areas that could result in negative consequences for the regional economic integration movement that needs to ensure solidarity for new trade and economic negotiations with Canada and the United States of America?

Prime Minister Golding, current chairman of Caricom's Prime Ministerial Subcommittee on External Trade Negotiations, anxious to project optimism, said that there was recognition of Guyana's "sovereign right" to sign a "goods only" or partial EPA.

However, he noted, over its 36 years of existence, the Community has been resilient in overcoming internal political and economic problems and he was "confident" that efforts would be made to avoid any rupture that could prove detrimental to the achievement of shared objectives. President Jagdeo, on his part, said he respected the right of his Caribbean colleagues to sign off, unconditionally, for the full EPA although he thinks this is a wrong approach.

He had previously informed his fellow heads of government that Guyana would only sign the full EPA "if forced to do so" by the EU's imposition of GSP (Generalised System of Preferences) sanctions to affect the country's vital exports to the European market, such as rice, sugar and rum.

This mutual acceptance of the right to sign or not is now of academic interest, since for the overwhelming majority - 13 out of 15 - member states of the CARIFORUM group that negotiated a full EPA with the EU the proverbial die has been cast.

As emerged from last Wednesday's special summit in Barbados, the 13 will sign by mid next month, unconditionally, the text of the EPA as initialled last December by representatives of the EU and the Caribbean Regional Negotiating Machinery (CRNM).

Failure to strike a compromise - even to delay the signing date decision until after the outcome of the coming Sixth Summit of the African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP countries in Ghana, less than three weeks away - has left Guyana standing alone for a "trade in goods only" agreement, and Haiti holding out on reservations over some provisions it hopes can be resolved.

For Jamaica - as it was for Trinidad and Tobago, Barbados, St Vincent and the Grenadines, Antigua and Barbuda, Dominica and St Kitts and Nevis, Suriname and the Dominican Republic - there was really never any doubt about their anxieties to sign off on the EPA text.

Joining them for Wednesday's decision were Grenada and St Lucia which had previously announced their intention to delay signing; as well as The Bahamas and Belize.

CORE ARGUMENTS

The heads of government who sang from the same hymn sheet on the EPA in its present form, as well as delegated representatives authorised to also concur on a signing date, may have been well spoken for by Prime Minister Golding, as well as Barbados' host, Prime Minister David Thompson.

The core argument in defence of unconditional signing was: Whatever real or perceived deficiencies may reside in some provisions of the text, the EPA, nevertheless, constitute "the best possible deal" the Caribbean could have secured from Europe.

For its part, Guyana, as the strongest dissenting voice, chose not to sing the chorus of "togetherness", Its argument, one that found much popular support from civil society across Caricom, was basically that in the absence of structured dialogue for reviewing the initialled text, governments had a moral obligation to listen to the spreading crescendo of dissenting voices of civil society across the region.

As it turned out, no government of Caricom - except that of Guyana - opted to engage any section of civil society to benefit from their criticisms/reservations, even if they disagreed with their positions.

Instead, calls by civil society representatives for dialogue were contemptuously ignored as if their representatives were aliens from another planet, removed from the realities of a Caribbean environment best known to the current regional political directorate of the region.

The contempt and ridicule even extended to once revered intellectuals and icons of our region, among them being the likes of Shridath Ramphal, Norman Girvan, Havelock Brewster, Clive Thomas and Vaughn Lewis.

In the circumstances, the initialled EPA text was conveniently placed out of reach for any review. It became holy writ, not subjected to changes before signing. This seems to be a new perspective on 'consultative democracy' to one, Europe has helped to fund in its desire to have a full EPA, as originally initialled, to wave to African and Pacific states that are still negotiating interim EPAs.

Feeding the multitude

DANGEROUS PETS

Pepper Pot