Kinnock

A British government minister has expressed concern that Jamaica and other members of the CARIFORUM group have been slow in accessing millions of dollars in grant funding from the European Union, to be used to modernise their industries to do business with their stronger counterparts in the European Union.

Caribbean Community (CARI-COM) member countries and the Dominican Republic, grouped as CARIFORUM, have entered an Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA) with the European Union (EU) that will allow for free trade between member states of the two groupings. The EPA was negotiated be-tween the EU and the African Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) group, but only the Caribbean has signed and ratified the agreement, which is to replace preferen-tial trade arrange-ments under the Cotonou Agreement. This agreement, the World Trade Organi-sation complained, was non-reciprocal and discriminating.

Need to speed up progrees

In order to assist Jamaica in preparing to take advantage of the EPA, the EU has provided J$1.5 billion to Jamaica and more to the rest of the region.

"The concern that I have is that the implementation process is progressing very slowly and we do need to see more coordination and coherence directed, of course, by CARIFORUM, in order to ensure that things can move ahead," Glenys Kinnock, minister of state for Africa and the United Nations, told The Gleaner this week.

She said the money provided was to be used in addressing "supply side constraints", and dealing with some of the development issues, including how Caribbean countries can meet very high hygiene and phytosanitary standards in order to access EU markets.

"It is a very challenging set of issues, but I think it is important that now that the EPA is signed and agreed that things can move forward and the funding can be used in a positive way for the benefit of the citizens of the Caribbean," state Kinnock.

She acknowledged that there are probably bureaucratic hurdles in the Caribbean as well as the EU, but expressed hope that "things would move a bit faster".

Debt forgiveness

Noting that the African and Pacific regional grouping had decided not to sign up to the EPA, the British junior minister remarked that she "would be the last person to criticise what Jamaica and the other countries in the Caribbean region have done in good faith".

Turning to the matter of debt forgiveness, Kinnock said the UK maintained "that it's not appropriate to offer a new debt initiative at this stage" to middle-income countries like Jamaica, although noting that "the issue of domestic and international debt is a very critical one that is damaging to your economy and the opportunity you have in Jamaica to deal with the financial crisis".

byron.buckley@gleanerjm.com