OECS Trade Ministers Discuss EPA and Cement

The OECS anticipate that the Economic Partnership Agreement will assist in the transition of OECS economies to better face the challenges of globalization

To this end Dr Antoine says addressing the supply side constraints and putting the critical infrastructure on Transportation, Healthcare, Services, Education and other factors will help ensure that an effective Economic Partnership agreement is reached. Antoine spoke to the OECS News Link following the Trade Ministers meeting;

“We have some very serious challenges beyond the study that must be reflected over the next several months, unless there is a change in the time frame, if this process when it concludes in December is to yield the fruits the OECS economies essentially expected. So there are some troubling signs for the OECS for the process and I think the good thing is that we have the material to make the intervention at this juncture.”

Dr. Antoine, who is lead official on the EPA Impact Assessment, says a development agenda must be advanced if the OECS countries are to benefit significantly from the negotiating process.

“They are many hard decisions for instance how we deal with our negotiating position with regional partners like the Dominican Republic, how we treat with, for instance, the whole issue of differentiation that the Europeans don’t seem to “get” though it’s part of our revised Treaty, how we threat with the whole notion of elements to a development agenda that must by definition require the signoff on a commitment from them to a broad development process…So the OECS Heads must pronounce and it is then for us to follow on those pronouncements.”

The meeting also noted the need to properly engage alternatives to the proposed EPA. Although some of the options appear to have tremendous implications the EPA negotiations embraces the need to consider alternatives.

“We have been talking about a generalized system of preferences plus agreement. That is not a very good option because it has inherent weaknesses. For instance it doesn’t deal with the whole issue of providing security to what ever little remains in terms of preferences. There are some options that are  WTO compatible but they are more alternative EPAs rather than alternatives to the EPA and there is a big distinction there. There are some other options that we are going to be playing with and putting on the table. At this time none of them appear to be very easy options for the OECS because they have tremendous implications in terms of how we co-exist if we went that way and the rest of the region signed on to the EPA process that are going to be intractable and difficult to deal with at this point and time. Nonetheless we do need to toy with the options of the alternatives and to signal quite early that we are prepared to go that route because the implications of the EPA, not just with Europe but the United States and others are quite serious.”

The OECS Trade Ministers are also considering a position on their relationship with the main provider of cement to the region, the TCL Group of Companies. This after the Trade Ministers met with representatives of TCL. Chairperson of the recent meeting Dominica’s Minister of Trade Charles Savarin describes the talks on cement as critical in the face of several infrastructural development projects taking place in the OECS.

Written by Media
Tuesday, 12 September 2006 08:23
OECS Trade Ministers and officials wrapped up a one day meeting in St. Lucia last Friday with agreement on the need for a strategic approach to the important Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA) negotiations with the European Union.   Trade Specialist Dr. Patrick Antoine says although the perceived impact of the EPA shows some troubling signs, he is confident that some challenges will decrease if the necessary interventions are executed.
Last Updated on Saturday, 30 May 2009 17:27