The draft impact assessment of the reciprocal Economic Partnership Agreement with Europe was analyzed by a wide cross section of stakeholders in Castries from August 3rd to 4th 2006.

Head of the assessment team Dr. Patrick Antoine told the OECS News Link OECS Member Countries will not suffer dire consequences when that reciprocal arrangement is established in January 2008.

He said the forecast shows the Fiscal, Trade and Poverty impacts will “not be too large” while pointing out the need for including a development dimension in the agreement if the OECS member states are to benefit significantly from the emergent agreement. Specialists agreed that the urgency now lies in institutional strengthening  and that it will require some  very serious institutional arrangements to be first negotiated and then put in place, with implications for organizations and for the public sector structures and for expertise to staff those institutional and organizational structures. The assessment further recommended the need for several fundamental institutional strengthening mechanisms, even if all conditions are not met when the time comes for signing the OECS/ Europe Economic Partnership Agreement.

Officials have warned that without the resources to focus on a meaningful EPA with Europe, the effort will work out to be a Trade Agreement which is not the COTONOU commitment that was signed in 2000 with the Europeans. The COTONOU commitment focuses on poverty alleviation development among other areas. The OECS has several Trade Agreements with territories such as Costa Rica. The Economic Partnership Agreement between the OECS and the European Union is based on the existing relationship between both territories.

Although the Ministers will engage mostly in matters pertaining to the EPA impact assessment at Friday’s meeting, they will also pursue an OECS position on Trade in Cement as well as discuss the WTO Trade Policy review.

Another novelty at Friday’s Ministers of Trade meeting will be the launching of an OECS Secretariat Publication entitled “Understanding International Trade”.

Understanding International Trade should help students, re­searchers, business people, public ser­vants and others to better understand the major issues in international trade negotiations and what is taking place at the various trade negotiating theatres. The attractive publication simplifies the complex trade ne­gotiation issues in reader friendly manner for the general public.

Recommendations out of Friday’s 13th meeting of the Council of OECS Trade Ministers will be presented to the OECS Authority, the highest decision making body of the nine member block when it meets later this year in Antigua-Barbuda.