Suriname president calls for unified ACP
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| Published on Monday, October 6, 2008 |
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By Ivan Cairo
Caribbean Net News Suriname Correspondent
Email: ivan@caribbeannetnews.com
PARAMARIBO, Suriname: President Ronald Venetiaan is calling for unity and solidarity between ACP nations in their engagement with the European Union (EU) to establish new trade arrangements. He also called upon the EU to defend its regulations vehemently since they are being challenged in the WTO.
“We in the Caribbean are committed to this principle and to that end we hope that we could all be signatories to the same agreement,” the Suriname government leaders told the Sixth African-Caribbean-Pacific (ACP) States Group Summit in Accra, Ghana.
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| Suriname President Ronald Venetiaan. AFP PHOTO |
At the request of the organization, Venetiaan briefly presented the background and an overview of the current state-of-play of the Economic Partnership Agreements (EPAs) while he highlighted several important issues that merit attention.
In his address he also provided details on the EPA situation in the Caribbean region.
According to the Caricom leader, the ACP Grouping is at a defining moment in their relationship with the EU as they continue to fashion new and fundamentally different trading regimes.
“They are not only more regional in character but also reciprocal in nature,” he said.
Venetiaan disclosed that CARIFORUM countries including Caricom, are scheduled to sign the agreement with the EU in Barbados on 15 October 2008. These countries have come to this position he said, after significant discussions, “many of them regarding the advantages and disadvantages of the agreement”.
He went on to explain that it was in large part to secure their exports to Europe that the CARIFORUM countries agreed to enter into negotiations on Economic Partnership agreements. However the region is already being confronted by threats to challenge EC regulations that will come out of the EPAs, through mechanisms of the World Trade Organization.
“ACP countries must urge the EC to vigorously defend against these baseless challenges and ensure that the legitimate interests of ACP suppliers of goods, as envisaged under the recently concluded and still to be concluded Economic Partnership Agreements, are safeguarded and are in no way jeopardized or undermined,” the Surinamese official warned.
He further advised that the ACP Group must continue to resist any attempt to divide it.
“The need to maintain, solidify and deepen our unity, especially as sister-regions continue to negotiate the outstanding EPA-related issues, is more than urgent today. In that unity lays our greatest strength in the international arena,” Venetiaan told the ACP-leaders.
The Summit ended Friday with a resolution by the Heads of States and Governments to engage in high-level consultations on the EPAs with several EU member states in order to make the agreements more inclusive to foster regional integration.
The President of the Council and Secretary-General of the Group has been directed to explore by the end this month, modalities for conducting the high-level engagement with key stakeholders in the EU.
On the other hand the Council of Ministers has been instructed to work on the establishment of an ACP Free Trade Area (FTA). | | | | Reads : 212 |
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