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Caribbean development alternatives and the CARIFORUM–European Union economic partnership agreement

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Abstract

The Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA) signed in October 2008 between the Caribbean and the European Union has been the subject of much controversy. There has been a marked split within the Caribbean between the officials and politicians who negotiated — and thus championed — the EPA and the wider academic and civil society community that subjected it to heavy criticism. The paper examines these debates in detail and situates them within the broader intellectual and practical panorama of Caribbean development alternatives. Specifically, it discusses how the terrain upon which development has been both theorised and practised in the region has narrowed significantly since the 1980s, with the EPA being the latest manifestation of this evolving trend. The paper consequently goes beyond an analysis of the short-term politics of the EPA to elucidate the deeper, structural explanations for the divisions over the EPA between the policy and academic communities and the wider implications of the Agreement for contemporary Caribbean development.

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Notes

  1. CARIFORUM was established in 1992 to facilitate cooperation between the largely English-speaking CARICOM and the Dominican Republic and Haiti, following the accession of the latter to the Lomé Convention. Although 13 of the 15 members of CARIFORUM — Antigua and Barbuda, Bahamas, Barbados, Belize, Dominica, Dominican Republic, Grenada, Jamaica, St. Kitts and Nevis, St. Lucia, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, Suriname and Trinidad and Tobago — signed the EPA on 15 October, 2008, Guyana initially refused to sign, only to do so 5 days later on 20 October. Haiti, which qualifies for EU unilateral trade preferences as a LDC, has yet to sign.

  2. In November 2007, the five countries of the East African Community — Burundi, Kenya, Rwanda, Tanzania and Uganda — broke away from the East and Southern Africa ‘region’ and signed a separate interim agreement with the EU, thus creating a seventh ACP group.

  3. Confidential interview with senior Caribbean diplomat, Brussels, January 2009.

  4. Confidential interviews with CRNM officials, Brussels and Geneva, January and February 2009.

  5. Confidential interview with senior WTO official, Geneva, February 2009.

  6. Confidential interview with senior Caribbean diplomat, Geneva, February 2009.

  7. Confidential interview with CRNM official, Geneva, February 2009.

  8. Confidential interview with South Centre official, Geneva, February 2009.

  9. Confidential interview with Oxfam official, Geneva, February 2009.

  10. Some have attributed the readiness of Barbados, in particular, to sign the EPA, to the fact that it is one of the more ‘developed’ countries of the region and, ergo, this development stems from a ‘forward thinking’ attitude to trade liberalisation and so on. Yet there are, it seems to us, a few problems with such an account. First, it is not clear that Barbados is ‘more’ developed than other Caribbean countries; its high levels of GDP per capita come with some very troubling trade-offs in terms of the inflationary cost of living, particularly of land and staple goods. Second, it is unlikely that such development, however it might exist, has anything to do with the early signing of the EPA. Finally, it is notable that, in the recent debates within the region, Barbados is often singled out as the country that is most reticent to implement both the EPA and many components of the CSME. Ironically, it is Guyana, the supposed laggard in terms of signing, which is often cited as one of the best implementers.

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Acknowledgements

This paper draws implicitly and explicitly upon extensive interviews undertaken by Tony Heron in the Caribbean and by Matthew Bishop in Brussels and Geneva during January and February 2009. A variety of officials close to the EPA negotiating process were consulted, along with relevant political, diplomatic, private sector and civil society leaders. At their request, all direct references to those interviewed have been anonymised. All indirect references are assumed to be implicit, and not noted directly in these endnotes. The authors would also like to acknowledge the support of the Economic and Social Research Council of the United Kingdom in supporting both periods of fieldwork.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of International Relations, University of the West Indies, St Augustine, West Indies, Trinidad and Tobago

    Matthew Louis Bishop

  2. Department of Politics, University of York, Derwent College, York, YO10 5DD, UK

    Tony Heron

  3. Department of Politics, University of Sheffield, Elmfield, Northumberland Road, Sheffield, S10 2TU, UK

    Anthony Payne

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Bishop, M., Heron, T. & Payne, A. Caribbean development alternatives and the CARIFORUM–European Union economic partnership agreement. J Int Relat Dev 16, 82–110 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1057/jird.2012.5

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