Elizabeth Morgan | A CARIFORUM update: Building an economic partnership with the EU

The Caribbean Forum (CARIFORUM) of the Organization of African, Caribbean and Pacific States (OACPS) now has a new chair. Barbados, it is understood, assumed that post as of July 1.

The chair should be the Hon Kerrie Symmonds, MP, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade, who should be hosting the next CARIFORUM Council of Ministers Meeting and co-chairing meetings with the European Union (EU) under the OACPS/EU Samoa Agreement and the CARIFORUM/EU Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA). CARIFORUM is supposed to be building a partnership with the EU evolving from a donor/recipient relationship.

SAMOA AGREEMENT

All CARIFORUM members, except Cuba, have now signed the EU/OACPS Samoa Agreement. While Cuba followed the negotiations for the Samoa Agreement, there has been a separate political dialogue and cooperation agreement between the EU and Cuba since 2016. In fact, nearly all the members of the OACPS have now signed the Samoa Agreement.

CARIFORUM, through its directorate in Georgetown, Guyana, should now be preparing to implement this agreement, particularly the Caribbean regional protocol, and its institutional arrangements.

Note that at the institutional level, the agreement calls for the following:

• Joint institutions at the all OACPS and EU level – the OACPS-EU Council of Ministers, the OACPS-EU Ambassadorial Level Senior Officials Committee, and the OACPS-EU Joint Parliamentary Assembly;

• Joint institutions for each of the regional protocols – a Council of Ministers, a Joint Committee, and a Parliamentary Assembly.

The agreement also states that the parties shall endeavour to ensure coordination and complementarity between the joint institutions of this agreement and the joint institutions of other frameworks or agreements to which they are party, including the EPAs, without prejudice to relevant provisions therein.

CARIFORUM/EU EPA

The CARIFORUM/EU Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA), it will be recalled, is the trade agreement which has existed between the parties since 2008 and is now in its 16th year. The institutions of this agreement are the Council of Ministers, the Trade and Development Committee, the Consultative Committee (including civil society), and the Parliamentary Committee.

The EPA is to be reviewed every five years. The pending five-year review has been in progress for a few years with concerns on the CARIFORUM side. The preparatory work for this review has been done in the Trade and Development Committee and the formal review has to be in the Council of Ministers.

The 10th CARIFORUM/EU EPA Meeting of the Trade and Development Committee was held in the Bahamas in April. During this meeting, members agreed to the text of the Joint Report on the Second Five-Year Review of the EPA (2015 to 2020) and the Decision Establishing the Special Committee on Services was signed. This special services committee has been a long time in coming.

It thus requires a meeting of the CF/EU Council of Ministers for the formal five-year review to be completed. It is not clear when this meeting will be convened.

CARIFORUM/EU TRADE DATA

In 2008, when the EPA was signed, the EU then had 28 members, including the United Kingdom. With Brexit from 2016 to 2020, the EU is now 27. In CARIFORUM, Cuba is not a party to the EPA. Haiti is a party to the agreement but is not applying it pending ratification. Haiti has preferential trade with the EU under its Everything But Arms scheme for the least developed countries.

In the goods trade, between 2022 and 2023, CARIFORUM’s exports to the EU collectively have returned to a surplus primarily the result of exports of crude oils and liquefied natural gas, chemicals (particularly methanol, and fertilisers), alumina as well as traditional agricultural products.

In 2023, CARIFORUM exported €11 billion in goods and imported €8 billion from the EU, giving a surplus of €3 billion. A principal exporter to the EU is the Dominican Republic.

Jamaica’s exports to the EU have actually not been robust. In 2023, Jamaica exported goods valued at €61 million to the EU and imported goods valued at €475 million, which gives the EU a surplus of €414 million.

Services have been seen as an important area in which to increase trade with the EU and, for this reason, the establishment of the Special Services Committee is seen as important. At Jamaica’s Political Dialogue with the EU in October 2023, Minister of State Alando Terrelonge is quoted as saying:

“As we look ahead to the further strengthening of relations with the EU, we note that there is significant scope for enhanced cultural cooperation with Jamaica, the expansion of services trade between both sides, and seamless travel between our two regions. We therefore look forward to positive outcomes on the actions we have been pursuing toward this end.”

PARTNERSHIP

The outgoing EU Head of Delegation in Jamaica, Marianne Van Steen, in her interview in The Sunday Gleaner, August 18, spoke of the partnership between Jamaica, and indeed CARIFORUM and the OACPS, with the EU. The EU emphasises that the Samoa Agreement aims to build a partnership of equals.

A partnership has to see benefits on both sides. So, it would be beneficial for CARIFORUM member states to see improvements in investments from EU members into the region and increased trade in both goods and services.

CARIFORUM wants to build not just a political and social partnership, but also an economic partnership that sees growth in the economies and further progress towards implementing the UN Sustainable Development Goals.

Elizabeth Morgan is a specialist in international trade policy and international politics. Email feedback to columns@gleanerjm.com