(CARICOM Secretariat, Turkeyen, Greater Georgetown, Guyana) A Special Meeting of Heads of State and Government of Caribbean countries that are signatories to the ACP-EU Cotonou Partnership Agreement will take place in Montego Bay, Jamaica on 4-5 October 2007.
The meeting will be taking place at a critical juncture of the negotiations between CARIFORUM and the European Union for an Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA) that will result in liberalized access for goods and services from the EU into the markets of CARIFORUM countries.
For the last 32 years, exports from Caribbean and other ACP countries have enjoyed non-reciprocal preferential access into the European Union under successive Lomé Conventions and the current Cotonou Partnership Agreement. The non-reciprocal arrangements come to an end on 31 December this year.
With the deadline for conclusion of the EPA negotiations fast approaching, the leaders of the 15 Caribbean Forum (CARIFORUM) countries of the 79 member African, Caribbean and Pacific Group of States (ACP) will also meet with two European Union (EU) Commissioners during their sessions. EU Commissioners for Trade, Mr. Peter Mandelson and for Development and Humanitarian Aid, Mr. Louis Michel will join the discussions on the evening of the 4 October and the morning of 5 October. CARIFORUM consists of the Member States of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) – except Montserrat – and the Dominican Republic.
The Meeting of CARIFORUM Heads of State and Government will allow leaders to review progress in the CARIFORUM-EU EPA negotiations and to strategise for their engagement with the EU Commissioners on the critical outstanding issues in the negotiations.
The meeting between CARIFORUM Heads of State/Government and the Commissioners has been called to try and resolve issues which could delay the completion of the negotiations in keeping with the agreed schedule.
Some of these issues include the manner and pace of opening CARIFORUM markets to EU goods and services, the treatment of Sugar and Bananas, commodities of interest to the Region, government procurement, and services and investment.
Prominent in the discussions from the perspective of CARIFORUM leaders will be the securing from the EU agreement for the incorporation of a meaningful development component in the EPA that will facilitate the transformation of the Region’s economies in the increasingly liberalized international trading environment.
