(CARICOM Secretariat, Turkeyen, Greater Georgetown, Guyana) The Caribbean Forum (CARIFORUM) of African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) States on Monday, called on the European Union (EU) to review and honour their commitment to the provisions of the Cotonou and Economic Partnership Agreements.

During their meeting which preceded the Sixth EU-LAC Summit at the IFEMA Centre in Madrid, Spain, Prime Minister of St Vincent and the Grenadines, Dr the Honourable Ralph Gonsalves, who spoke on behalf of CARIFORUM, enumerated the strides made by the Caribbean against the odds of the global economic challenges. The CARICOM Single Market and Economy, he said, was making strides despite the many challenges it faced. CARIFORUM continued its efforts at deepening and expanding, with the membership of the Dominican Republic in CARICOM under consideration and significant in-roads had been made in respect of ALBA and the newly created CALC.

Notwithstanding those gains however, Prime Minister Gonsalves hastened to point out to EU representatives that the Caribbean’s best efforts would come to ‘nought’ if the EU did not honour the consultation provisions of the Cotonou and EPA Agreements.

In doing so, Prime Minister Gonsalves reminded the EU, of the importance of ensuring that their other bilateral trade agreements were not pursued at the expense of the Caribbean region; that they facilitated the effectiveness of accompanying and support measures intended to provide relief to the Caribbean region and that they urgently undertook an assessment of the impact of trade liberalisation with Latin America on CARIFORUM countries.

He suggested that one area in which the EU could collaborate with CARIFORUM was that of Food Security. According to the St Vincent and the Grenadines Prime Minister, “agriculture remains an important contributor to rural development, GDP, employment and export earnings in our region. At the same time, the food import bill in CARICOM is more than US$2 billion annually. The returns to investment in Agriculture in the Region are dwindling at the same time the Region is faced with volatile food and agricultural prices.”

Against this background, he stated that a CARIFORUM Food Security Programme would benefit from support for a Bio-Security Policy, Agribusiness Development, Agricultural Health and Food Safety laboratories and systems.

He added that innovative systems could contribute positively to food security in the region and pointed out that there was significant scope for CARIFORUM-EU collaboration in a system which included, capacity building for Sustainable Institutional Development; a Policy and Incentive Environment; a Tripartite Collaboration (Triple Helix Approach).

“…while regional integration and cooperation are touted from the rooftops, as central pillars of ACP/EU and CARIFORUM/EU Cooperation, no provisions are made for access to V-FLEX and other such mechanisms by sub-regions like the OECS which desperately require such support,” Prime Minister Gonsalves lamented.

The Vulnerability Flex Mechanism (V-Flex) is a crisis Fund set up by the EU in December 2009 to cushion the blow of the global crises to some CARIFORUM countries. To date eleven African and two Caribbean countries have benefited from the Fund.

Dr Gonsalves acknowledged the move by the EU for its initiative in creating the V-FLEX Mechanism, noting that in doing so it had demonstrated leadership. However he observed that EU could further enhance its standing by increasing the resources available to the mechanism, expanding its duration and making provision for sub-regions like the OECS which had already moved to full monetary union

“Let there be no doubt that regional integration and cooperation are instruments to achieve the sustainable development of CARIFORUM. Let there be no doubt that the region appreciates the contribution of the EU to its efforts. Let there be no doubt that unless the EU is careful, it can undo the positive contribution by its unilateral actions and bilateral commitments on commodities to those outside of the ACP…Let there be no doubt that EU Financing Mechanisms, like the V-FLEX, can play an even greater role in supporting Caribbean development than it currently does,” Prime Minister Gonsalves concluded.

CONTACT: piu@caricom.org