IT'S EPA DAY!

Today is that day that a special summit of CARICOM leaders on the Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA) with the European Union (EU) gets going at the Sherbourne Conference Centre, Two-Mile Hill, St Michael.

Indications from the Caribbean Community Secretariat however suggest that there may be five, possibly six Heads of Government absent, but there will be representation from all participating member countries.

This means that one-third of the Heads of Government of the 15 Caribbean states (including Dominican Republic) involved with the CARIFORUM/EU EPA, will miss today's summit.

The list of expected absent leaders includes the prime ministers of Trinidad and Tobago, The Bahamas and Belize and the presidents of Haiti and the Dominican Republic and, up to press time last night, it was still not known whether Prime Minister Bruce Golding of Jamaica would be present.

The Government, as host for the meeting, has put all relevant arrangements in place to facilitate all CARIFORUM partners in what could be quite a lively session about what would be an appropriate date for signing off on the negotiated text of the EPA, by those who have committed.

The agreement was initialled last December between officials of the European Commission and the Caribbean Regional Negotiating Machinery.

Interest in today's special summit has been heightened by last Friday's national consultation of stakeholders in Guyana that concluded with a consensus to mandate Guyana's President Bharrat Jagdeo to sign a "goods only" aspect of the EPA.

Jagdeo wants to await the outcome of the coming October 2 to 3 Sixth Summit of the African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) Countries in Ghana, at which interim and full EPAs negotiated with the EU are to be discussed.

Europe's representative at the Guyana Consultation, Karl Falkenburg, deputy director general of trade at the European Commission (EC), has already declared firm opposition to any temporary sign-off on "goods only" and has reiterated that the ultimate deadline for signatures by participating states was October 31.

He warned of "unnecessary problems" for the region's integration movement should divisions persist against signing the full EPA.

In contrast, Sir Shridath Ramphal, the Caribbean's first chief negotiator, has warned against "abandonment" of the Caribbean Single Market and Economy (CSME) and of turning of "our Caribbean dream into a nightmare" should the CARIFORUM countries sign off on the EPA "in its present form" and ignore the demands for reviewing contentious clauses.

This week, as the cut and thrust of debates for and against signing continued, Dr Norman Girvan, author of CARICOM's approved working document Towards A Single Economy And A Single Development Vision, had a warning of his own.

That warning: should today's meeting "end in disarray", he declared, "the foundations of the EPA will have been laid in the graveyard of regionalism . . . ." (RS/RG)

Please see also MIDWEEK NATION Extra.