Break the silence on trade talks - No update on EPA and Canada deal irks Opposition

Daraine Luton, Senior Staff Reporter

THE PARLIAMENTARY Opposition wants definitive statements to be made in the House of Representatives on the implementation of the Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA) as well as the state of discussions with Canada for a trade regime.

Edmund Bartlett, member of parliament for East Central St James and the opposition spokesperson on foreign affairs, used his contribution to the 2014-2015 Sectoral Debate last Tuesday to charge that the failure to transform trade agreements into economic benefits is at the heart of the region's chronic underdevelopment and economic malaise.

He said Prime Minister Portia Simpson Miller who chairs the CARICOM sub-committee on trade, has a duty to update Parliament on the discussions with regard to Canada.

Canada and CARICOM have been seeking to put in place a trade and development agreement, which has been the subject of a discussion since 2009. The parties are seeking to ink an agreement which would replace the current non-reciprocal Caribbean-Canada Trade Agreement known as CARIBCAN.

The World Trade Organisation waiver, which allows Canada to grant such non-reciprocal preferences, expired on December 31, 2013.

A June deadline was set for the completion of the negotiations.

"We are now more than a week into July, but there has been no word from the minister or the prime minister - who chairs the prime ministerial subcommittee on trade negotiations for CARICOM - as to what the future of these negotiations is. This means that as of June 30, 2014, there is no firm agreement on the future market access of Jamaican goods and services into Canada," charged Bartlett.

He argued that while Jamaica's relationship with Canada is good, "we should not push our luck" by seeking to proceed without a trade agreement.

"The Canadians have now diverted their attention to the Trans-Pacific Partnership negotiations currently going on, and may not be in a hurry to recommence talks with us," he warned.

In a recent statement in the Senate, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade A.J. Nicholson said CARICOM requires the agreement with Canada to be "asymmetrical, taking account of the fact that the region comprises small, vulnerable developing countries engaged in the negotiations with a larger, a more diversified developed country, listed among the largest trading nations in the world".

According to Nicholson: "Even if all of the matters that are on the table are not agreed to at the end of June, I don't think that it would be the end of the matter since both Canada and CARICOM wish for an agreement."

In relation to the EPA, Bartlett said CARIFORUM countries are straining under the weight of its implementation.

Jamaica and 14 other Caribbean countries signed the EPA in 2008, which involved a reduction of customs duties and access to markets in a bid to spur global trade."

Bartlett said Jamaica and other CARIFORUM countries are not receiving the financial and technical support which was anticipated in 2008 when the agreement was signed.

"They are experiencing debilitating financial and human constraints, and to compound their already weak financial position, the European Union's proposed differentiation policy will further reduce financial assistance," said Bartlett.