Bridgetown, Barbados – European Commission (EC) Trade Commissioner Peter Mandelson says he is “doubtful” about a resolution to Guyana’s decision to sign just a “goods only” term of the Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA), but has left the door open for likely “adjustments” once the text is signed in its present form before the October 31 deadline.

Mandelson’s position was in response to a letter from Caribbean Community (Caricom) Secretary General Edwin Carrington informing the EC that he was “mandated” to advise that the Guyana Government “is prepared to sign only the ‘Trade in Goods’ Section of the EPA to make it “compatible” with World Trade Organisation rules, pending the outcome of further negotiations for a full EPA.

The correspondence between Carrington and Mandelson followed the September 10 special Caricom Summit in Barbados at which 13 of the 15 countries of the CARIFORUM Group (Caricom plus the Dominican Republic) agreed to sign by October 15 the full EPA, as resulted from negotiations concluded last December by officials of the EC and the Caribbean Regional Negotiating Machinery.

The two that decided against signing were Guyana, which chose to stand alone with its partial commitment on “goods only”, while Haiti recorded reservations on various provisions for clarification before deciding whether or not to sign a full EPA.

Like Carrington’s letter to him, Mandelson’s response was copied to Guyana’s President Bharrat Jagdeo; Haiti’s President Rene Preval; and the prime ministers of Antigua and Barbuda (Baldwin Spencer, current Caricom chairman); Jamaica (Bruce Golding, as chairman of the Community’s Prime Ministerial Subcommittee on External Economic Negotiations) and Barbados’ David Thompson (whose government is to host the signing ceremony scheduled for October 15).

While the exchange of correspondence between Carrington and Mandelson was taking place, legal experts in London and Brussels were pointing to provisions in both interim EPAs with Africa and the Pacific and the full EPA initialled with the Caribbean that a “goods only” section of the pact would be permissible under WTO rules and that sanctions against Guyana should not be presumed to be “automatic”.

However, Mandelson contends in his letter, a copy of which was obtained by this newspaper, that on Guyana’s request to sign onto just a “goods only” agreement, he was “doubtful that we would be able to arrive at better terms than in the current text, which is the result of long and intensive negotiations….”

“But,” he added, “we are ready to hold an early meeting of the Ministerial Joint Council (as provided for in the EPA) to consider any issues of concern to CARIFORUM states, and we would be ready to consider adjusting the provisions of the agreement, once it is signed in the light of our shared experience in implementing it”.

At the same time, Mandelson argues that requests pertaining to a partial signing of the negotiated full EPA “have potentially serious implications for the process of regional integration in the Caribbean”.

In relation to Haiti’s position, Carrington has advised Mandelson that Caricom’s concerns against a commitment highlighted three specific areas of the text as follows:

“Regional Preference, especially in its relations with the Dominican Republic; Aid for Development being crucial and in need of elucidation before signing; and Market Access abnormalities relating to the tariff levels from which liberalisation is to be undertaken…”