Business

Guyanese president Bharrat Jagdeo is warning CARICOM to be wary of trade accords that seek to impose labour and environmental standards on the region.

Speaking in Montego Bay on the margin of the Conference of Caricom heads that wrapped up on Wednesday, Jagdeo said developed countries have been using issues such as labour and environmental standards "as protectionist measures in the past".

CARICOM countries have started negotiations with Canada for a new trade deal to replace the more than 20-year-old Caribbean-Canada Trade Agreement (CARIBCAN) that was based on preferences to the Caribbean and which has since been ruled out of sync with World Trade Organiza-tion rules.

The two parties have already undertaken substantive negotiating exchanges with respect to Sanitary and Phytosanitary Measures (SPS) and Technical Barriers to Trade (TBT) which are particularly germane to trade in goods.

The negotiations will centre on achieving further convergence on issues such as market access for industrial and agricultural goods, services, investment and legal and institutional issues.

Jagdeo told reporters that what he is most concerned about in the negotiations is who judges your labour standards or your environ-mental standards.

No transparency

"Often there is no transparency in that process. We will be submitting our position to our regional colleagues who negotiate on our behalf, and at the end of the day we will have to look at what is good for our region," Jagdeo said. "But we have seen from our own experience that we should try to avoid these standards".

Jagdeo said he was also concerned that countries like the United States have been using issues such as trafficking in persons to push their agenda on developing countries.

The last report issued by the US State Department was very critical of Guyana regarding allegations of child slavery.

"When someone puts in a document that they have removed 984 children from extreme form of child labour in Guyana, which the US government did, and the (US) embassy does not know, the NGOs in Guyana do not know and the opposition does not know, the Government does not know ... then how can you take the report seriously?" he said.

- CMC