LESSONS OF THE EPA - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

1 / 22
About This Presentation
Title:

LESSONS OF THE EPA

Description:

Removes duties and all other restrictions on the majority of imports from Europe ... of production capacities in import substitution and exports (Brewster) ... – PowerPoint PPT presentation

Number of Views:14
Avg rating:3.0/5.0
Slides: 23
Provided by: ngir5
Category:
Tags: epa | lessons | the | brewster

less

Transcript and Presenter's Notes

Title: LESSONS OF THE EPA


1
LESSONS OF THE EPA
  • Norman Girvan
  • Civil Society Forum
  • 12 June2008
  • http//normangirvan.info

2
Country GSP SENSITIVE EXPORTS 2005 data GSP SENSITIVE EXPORTS 2005 data GSP SENSITIVE EXPORTS 2005 data
EXPORTS TO EU TOTAL EXPORTS EXPORTS GOODS SERVICES
BELIZE 75.1 20.7 8.5
GUYANA 72.3 27.7 21.8
ST. KITTS NEVIS 71.5 0.1 0.0
JAMAICA 47.6 11.0 4.3
SURINAME 44.8
DOMINICA 42 7.4 2.3
DOMINICAN REPUBLIC
ST. LUCIA 27.4 11.1 1.0
BARBADOS 21.7 4.2 0.5
TRINIDAD AND TOBAGO 17.4 2.7 0.3
GRENADA 9.1 2.3 0.4
ST VINCENT/GRENADINES 3.9 1.2 0.2
BAHAMAS 3.4 0.0 0.0
ANTIGUA BARBUDA 1.4 0.0 0.0
3
COUNTRY VULNERABLE PRODUCTS
Belize BANANAS, SUGAR, ORANGES
Guyana SUGAR, RICE, RUM
St. Kitts Nevis SUGAR (?)
Jamaica SUGAR (CANNED ACKEE)
Suriname BANANAS, RICE
Dominica BANANAS
Dominican Republic BANANAS, RUM
St. Lucia BANANAS
Barbados SUGAR, RUM
Trinidad and Tobago SUGAR (?), JUICES, JAMS, FOOD PREPARATIONS, METHANOL
Grenada ..
St Vincent/Grenadines BANANAS
Bahamas ..
Antigua Barbuda ANCHOVIES
4
  1. Removes duties and all other restrictions on the
    majority of imports from Europe within 15 years.
    (13 are permanently excluded).
  2. requires that such imported goods be given the
    same treatment as national and regionally
    produced goods
  3. requires an overhaul of customs and trade
    administration to conform to standards largely
    set by Europe
  4. circumscribes the kind of actions that
    governments are allowed to take to defend
    national producers and regional producers against
    unfair competition from bigger and much better
    European firms
  5. grants EU firms immediate free access to the
    majority of our service sectors
  6. requires that service suppliers from Europe be
    granted the same treatment as national and
    regional service firms,

5
  1. restricts the ability of regional governments to
    regulate service industries in the public
    interest
  2. allows European service firms to bring in their
    own people as senior managers without specific
    qualifications and recent graduates as interns,
  3. guarantees that European firms that establish
    themselves here can repatriate their capital and
    current earnings freely
  4. requires regional governments to pass new laws
    and set up new institutions in Intellectual
    Property, Competition Policy, Pubic Procurement,
    and e-commerce that are mainly aimed at
    facilitating European business and conforming to
    the European global trade policy agenda
  5. pre-empts Caricoms own development policies in
    these areas and hence in effect supersedes the
    CSME process
  6. establishes an implementation machinery, presided
    over by a joint Council with the EU and the DR
    with binding decision-making powers,

6
  1. establishes a Trade and Development Committee
    with powers to supervise, monitor and implement
    every aspect of the agreement
  2. establishes a Dispute Settlement Machinery which
    tightly circumscribes the ability of governments
    and government agencies to get out from under the
    obligations of the agreement and allows for
    punitive trade sanctions in the event of
    non-compliance
  3. requires that OECS countries open their economies
    to imports from the DR as well as Europe, hence
    removing their special and differential treatment
    that they currently enjoy in the Caricom-DR FTA
  4. requires that we extend to Europe whatever we
    might agree in the future with other large
    developing countries, and
  5. is an international treaty with legally binding
    force, of indefinite duration, and with limited
    scope for revision

7
  and timing of imports to be liberalised and timing of imports to be liberalised and timing of imports to be liberalised and timing of imports to be liberalised and timing of imports to be liberalised and timing of imports to be liberalised and timing of imports to be liberalised
COUNTRY 0 5Y 10 Y 15 Y 20Y 25Y EXC
ANTIGUA / BARBUDA 7 7 25 35 2 2 22
BAHAMAS 32 2 13 34 3 2 13
BARBADOS 48 0 2 24 1 1 23
BELIZE 13 6 10 27 1 3 39
DOMINICA 17 3 18 27 2 1 27
DOMINICAN REPUBLIC 53 8 5 21 3 5 5
GRENADA 9 14 20 25 2 3 28
GUYANA 53 1 7 18 2 1 18
HAITI 60 0 1 7 2 4 27
JAMAICA 56 0 1 26 2 1 13
ST. KITTS AND NEVIS 18 16 16 17 2 2 29
ST. LUCIA 38 0 4 22 5 2 29
ST. VINCENT/GREN 8 7 14 30 2 2 37
SURINAME 9 9 20 27 2 3 28
TRINIDAD/TOBAGO 73 0 1 18 0 1 6
CARIFORUM 53 3 5 22 2 2 13
8
A Level Playing Field?
POPULATION (Millions) GDP (PPP) Bil. PER CAPITA GDP (PPP)
EU 490 12165 24,811
CARIFORUM 25 138 5,532
CARICOM 15 65 4,220
9
PLAYING ON THE LEVEL FIELD Aggregate GDP PPP
2005
15 RICHEST EU COUNTRIES
CARIFORUM COUNTRIES
10
CARIFORUM Adjustment CostsEstimated Milner
Report 2005
  • Fiscal adjustment costsEU 375 m
  • Trade facilitation and export development costs
    240 m EU
  • Production and employment adjustment costs 140 M
  • Skill development and productivity enhancement
    costsEU 210 M
  • TOTAL 924 M
  • Amount allocated for EPA implementation in 10th
    EDF 33 M

11
ESTIMATED EPA ADJUSTMENT COSTS FOR CARIFORUM COUNTRIES (in million ) (in 2005-equivalent prices) ESTIMATED EPA ADJUSTMENT COSTS FOR CARIFORUM COUNTRIES (in million ) (in 2005-equivalent prices) ESTIMATED EPA ADJUSTMENT COSTS FOR CARIFORUM COUNTRIES (in million ) (in 2005-equivalent prices) ESTIMATED EPA ADJUSTMENT COSTS FOR CARIFORUM COUNTRIES (in million ) (in 2005-equivalent prices) ESTIMATED EPA ADJUSTMENT COSTS FOR CARIFORUM COUNTRIES (in million ) (in 2005-equivalent prices) ESTIMATED EPA ADJUSTMENT COSTS FOR CARIFORUM COUNTRIES (in million ) (in 2005-equivalent prices) ESTIMATED EPA ADJUSTMENT COSTS FOR CARIFORUM COUNTRIES (in million ) (in 2005-equivalent prices)
NO. COUNTRY Fiscal Adjustment Export Diversification Employment Adjustment Skills/ Productivity Enhancement Total Adjustment Costs
1 HAITI 50 20 20 30 120
2 DOMINICAN REPUBLIC 50 20 25 20 115
3 GUYANA 15 30 6 10 61
4 SURINAME 20 10 6 15 51
5 JAMAICA 40 12 12 15 79
6 BARBADOS 20 5 6 10 41
7 BELIZE 20 10 6 10 46
8 DOMINICA 20 5 6 15 46
9 GRENADA 20 30 6 15 71
10 ST KITTS AND NEVIS 20 5 6 15 46
11 ST. LUCIA 20 5 4 10 39
12 ST. VINCENT/GRENADINES 20 30 6 15 71
13 TRINIDAD AND TOBAGO 40 12 25 15 92
14 BAHAMAS 20 5 6 15 46
Total Total 375 199 140 210 924
12
Objections to a Full EPA
  • Includes Chapters ON Investment and Current
    Account payments, Competition Policy, Public
    Procurement, Intellectual Property
  • The commitments are immediate, legally binding
    and indefinite while the supposed benefits are
    in the future and unenforceable.
  • Restrict the ability of CF governments to foster
    the development of local and regional enterprises
    and to regulate their economies in the public
    interest--indefinitely.

13
  • Pre-empt and prescribe the CSME policy regimes in
    these areas. These ought To have been crafted to
    foster the development of local and regional
    enterprises better equipped to penetrate
    extra-regional markets.
  • Undermine the negotiating position of the CF and
    other developing countries in the WTO
  • Commit governments to onerous implementation
    obligations-- new laws and regulations and to set
    up new institutions

14
Other Contentious Clauses
  • Regional Preference
  • Requires the Caricom LDCS to open their markets
    to the Dom Rep as well as to the EU
  • Most Favoured Nation (MFN) Clause
  • Requires Cariforum to grant the same treatment to
    the EU as they may garnt to China, India, Brazil
    and MERCOSUR in any future trade agreement

15
Girvan EPA 01/05/08
15
16
IMPLEMENTATION OF THE EPA
  • 336 identified implementation actions
  • 90 legislative
  • 72 institutional
  • 110 policy
  • 64 other
  • Most are to be taken on provisional application
    of the EPA
  • Outstanding for CSME implementation 384 (2005)

17
LESSONS OF THE EPA
  • Absence of strategic political management
  • Ad hoc and expedient decision-making
  • Failure to maintain the ACP alliance
  • Failure to tap into potential sources of
    political support in Europe
  • Failure to present our own development agenda as
    the framework for the negotiations
  • Delays in CSME implementation of the CSME
  • Aceptance of negotiations on the EC template,
    coming directly out of the Global Europe project,
  • Ideological and institutional co-optation of key
    elites in the region
  • Lack of genuine popular involvement in the process

18
Advocacy demands
  • 1. Renegotiate the EPA to remove its
    objectionable features and to insert features
    designed to protect the public, national and
    regional interest preserve the space for
    autonomous development policy and protect the
    integrity of the regional integration movement.

19
  • A RENEGOTIATED EPA
  • Limit the EPA to what is necessary to ensure WTO
    compatibility
  • Seek the widest possible interpretation of what
    constitutes substantially all trade vis-à-vis
    degree and phasing of liberalization
  • Phasing import liberalization in line with
    development of production capacities in import
    substitution and exports (Brewster)
  • Insisting on binding obligations for development
    support
  • Removing the Regional Preference and Most
    Favoured Nation clauses.
  • Insertion of legally binding development
    benchmarks to be monitored by the Joint
    Parliamentary and/or Consultative Committees with
    legally binding powers
  • Insertion of five-year Review clause

20
Plan B
  • Demand insertion into the agreement of
  • Development Benchmarks (social and economic) as
    legally binding monitoring instruments
  • A Review Clause that compels an unconditional
    review of all EPA provisions after the first
    three years of operation, with possibility of
    renegotiation. There is a similar feature in the
    CPA.

21
Plan C
  • Call for Cariforum or Caricom governments to
    collectively issue a Joint Declaration stating
    that they are signing the EPA in spite of severe
    reservations, and that they reserve the right to
    undertake a comprehensive review of the EPA
    within three years of signature, to determine its
    development impact and its impact on regional
    integration and to seek, on the basis of such a
    review, a comprehensive renegotiation of the EPA
    in line with WTO rules and the development and
    integration needs of the region.

22
Plan D
  • Press governments to commission an independent,
    socio-economic impact analysis of the initialed
    EPA to determine challenges, threats and
    opportunities to farmers, businessmen small and
    large, workers, women, youth, and recipients of
    public and social services and declare that the
    EPA lacks legitimacy.
Write a Comment
User Comments (0)
About PowerShow.com