Back in 2008 when then President Jagdeo came out swinging against the EPA with the EU, the geniuses at the Caricom Regional Negotiating Machinery (CRNM) had negotiated (?); some were bent out of shape. Well, as Jagdeo predicted, the chickens are coming home to roost. The EU just complained about the ‘imbalance’ in trade with us and will be taking steps immediately to rectify same. For example in 2010, we shipped €170 million worth of goods to the EU and imported €89 million. The EU wants this equalised.
And under the EPA, which overturned and replaced all previous agreements, they have every legal right to do so. We have to open nearly 90 per cent of our markets to duty-free imports of EU products over the next 20 odd years. The EPA, after all, is based on the “principle of reciprocity” – which is what caused Jagdeo’s explosion. This giveaway went against over half a century of “special and differential” (S&D) treatment that is even enshrined into present WTO rules!
The theory behind S&D treatment, of course, was that Europe had broken our legs over the last few centuries and could not expect to run on an ‘equal’ playing field right now. The geniuses at the CRNM had the gall to tell us that it was to our benefit to be able to compete with the EU! We are still waiting for someone to tell us in which area we can match the EU’s technological advantage – built on our backs to boot. No wonder Jagdeo gave Jeffrey the boot for going along with this outrage.
What did we gain by throwing away this trade advantage? Not even zilch. It has put us into a hole – a negative situation. This “equal treatment” of parties that are unequal will inevitably result in unequal outcomes – as we will see intensified, now that the EU is imploding financially.