BRIDGETOWN, Barbados – Caricom heads should take the initiative for a special summit of African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) governments in the interest of collectively securing “the best possible” Economic Partnership Agreements (EPAs) with the European Union.

The suggestion was made by Sir Shridath Ramphal, who once headed the Caribbean Regional Negotiating Machinery (CRNM) and, along with former Jamaica Prime Minister PJ Patterson, had played key roles in the inauguration of the original ACP group of countries back in 1975.

Sir Ramphal made the call for the summit of the now 79-member ACP, during an interview here with the Caribbean Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) as plans were being finalised for the two-day special meeting which begins today in Montego Bay between Caribbean leaders and top officials from the EU.

Sir Ramphal is currently in the island for a meeting not connected with the two-day Montego Bay conference involving Heads of Government of CARIFORUM (Caricom plus Dominican Republic) and the Trade and Development Commissioners of the EU.

He emphasised his earlier contention that the Caribbean “must avoid being rushed” into signing an EPA with the EU, bearing in mind the implications that “a bad agreement is worse than no agreement… for a bad agreement is forever”.

Ramphal, who headed the high-level 15-member West Indian Commission on the future of the region’s various facets of development into the 21st century, said that the Caribbean leaders and officials involved in negotiations must “resist pressure-cooker tactics” from the EU representatives in their determination to secure trade and economic development arrangements consistent with a European agenda.

Prime Minister Bruce Golding is scheduled to chair today’s meeting of CARIFORUM leaders ahead of tomorrow’s sessions with the EU’s Trade Commissioner Peter Mandelson and his colleague, Louis Michel, Commissioner for Development and Humanitarian Aid.