BRIDGETOWN, Barbados – First chief negotiator and director general of the Caribbean Regional Negotiating Machinery (CRNM), Sir Shridath Ramphal, has cautioned the region not to “rush into signing” the Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA) with the European Union (EU), warning that it could turn “into a nightmare .

In fact, Sir Shridath, who is also a leading architect of the establishment of the African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) group, appealed to the CARIFORUM countries (CARICOM plus Dominican Republic) to put the signing of the EPA on hold until after the October 2-3 ACP summit in Accra, Ghana. The EPA is up for discussion on its agenda.

In a prepared text read to the assembled participants at Friday’s national consultation of stakeholders on the EPA in Georgetown at the weekend, Ramphal cautioned against this region endangering ACP solidarity under pressures from the EU.

“Is this ‘partnership’ with Europe now more special than our bonds with Africa?” he asked. “Will partnership with Europe turn our Caribbean dream into a nightmare? The answer” he added, “is yes.”

The former long-serving Chancellor of the University of the West Indies stressed that “the best available technical assessment” of the CARIFORUM-EU agreement, “will, in its present form, probably lead to the eventual abandonment of the CSME (Caribbean Single Market and Economy) project…”

He said this probability of abandonment of the CSME “is heightened by the fact that the Caribbean is signing the EPA as separate states”.

He urged: “Our only response now has to be a collective one. Let us collectively put signing on hold until after the ACP summit in Accra. Then, with the rest of the ACP, engage the EU.”

Ramphal contends that since not one but six regional EPAs are involved in the new economic relationship between the ACP and Europe, then the EU “needs the six EPAs more than any one region”. (Five of these are interim EPAs, with the only concluded full accord is that initialled with CARIFORUM and now awaiting agreement for the signing arrangement).

CARICOM Heads of Government are having a special summit in Barbados on Wednesday at the Shernourne Conference Centre to discuss an appropriate date for signing the EPA with Europe before the end of October, as the European Commission (executive arm of the EU) has targetted as the ultimate date for signatures by the 15 participating Caribbean countries,

However, according to a “Consensus Statement” from last Friday’s national consultation of stakeholders in Guyana, President Bharrat Jagdeo will be attending Wednesday’s special summit armed with a mandate from the consultation to agree that his government was willing to sign a “goods only” portion of the EPA pending further reviews of the accord.

In addressing the opening session of the consultation which he had initiated, President Jagdeo said that while unity was essential for the region in dealing with the European Union, he was now prepared to a sign “a goods only” trade pact instead of the full EPA in its present form,”even if it means doing it alone…”

On the other hand, Barbados, which is hosting the special summit, was not out to “twist anybody’s arm” to sign the EPA, accordng to its Foreign Minister Chris Sinckler.

While addressing the 67th annual conference of the Barbados Workers Union on Saturday, Sinckler who steered away from mentioning any government or country by name said it was “passing strange” that having mandated the CRNM to complete negotiations with the EU for a full EPA, there should now be criticisms and opposition.