Bdos: Caricom backs all talk and no action

The question many may ask is why are Barbados and other CARICOM states out of the loop, and why has the United States pursued this course while at the same time being determined to conclude an hemispheric free trade pact by year end in the face of clear signs that the date is way too ambitious?...

What the United States has discovered, as Dr Ralph Gonzales, the WTO director with the Caribbean Regional Negotiating Machinery (CRNM) revealed recently at a workshop in Antigua, is that many of the same issues they faced in the WTO have also arisen in the FTAA negotiations. Besides the fact that the FTAA is supposed to be WTO compatible, it seeks to include areas still not agreed on in the WTO. The Americans themselves have argued, much to the consternation of countries such as Brazil and Argentina, that they cannot negotiate the contentious issue of reducing its annual $300 billion in farm subsidies except within the WTO where Japan and the European Union would also have to agree to similar cuts.

“Some countries, particularly the United States, have stated clearly that they cannot waste too much time on the WTO,” Gonzales stated. “They are saying very bluntly that the WTO is becoming like the United Nations -- a talk shop and they want to be where the action is – where the decisions are being made. This means for them operating on the regional level and on the bilateral level in order to make progress in trade liberalisation.

“The Mexicans are doing it and they recently signed one with the Japanese. The Brazilians are talking about signing one with South Africa and India. Third World countries are thinking about signing a free trade agreement in Brazil next year... everyone is on to bilaterals."

Conceding that bilateral trade deals were being brokered around the world, the Trinidad-based trade expert described them as “disruptive” and “undermining” of the multilateral process.

In fact, he argued that bilaterals often proved detrimental, particularly to the weaker country in such a trade pact.

According to Gonzales, whose advice often informs CARICOM’s trade positions, the region was in fact, “running away from bilaterals”.

"We are not interested in moving on a bilateral level. We feel that in bilateral arrangements we are going to be swamped and ... we are going to be an unequal power and certain demands will be made of us. In a bilateral arrangement, these countries ask for much deeper tariff cuts ... and we don’t want to make tariff cuts in the way these countries are demanding.”

Instead of learning to play with the big boys, Caricom is opting not to play, but to settle for the endless blague of the WTO. Why am I not surprised?