“…Don’t let us sell ourselves short. There will be threats of many kinds and at many levels….But if we have unity among ourselves in the Caribbean and with the rest of the ACP, we will prevail.”?Caribbean governments must heed the voice of reason and pause, review, renegotiate before the region’s fate is sealed by ill-advised signatures that commit to a new era of European dominion.This stirring expression of caution was put forward by none other than eminent dignitary, Sir Shridath Ramphal, who was one of the panelists speaking yesterday during the national consultations on the recently initialed Economic Partnership Agreement with the European Union and CARIFORUM (CARICOM/Dominica)The forum was attended by several representatives of civil society as well as key figures of the negotiating process such as Henry Gill, the Director General of the Caribbean Regional Negotiating Machinery (CRNM) that negotiated on behalf of CARIFORUM.Also present at the event was Karl-Friedrich Falkenburg, deputy director of Trade at the European Commission, President Bharrat Jagdeo, Dr Clive Thomas and Sir Ronald Sanders among others.According to Sir Shridath, at this point in time, the only response now has to be a collective one.He noted that collectively the stakeholders should put signing on hold until after the African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) Group of States’ Summit in Accra.“Then let us, with the rest of the ACP, engage the EU…The EU needs the six EPAs even more than any one Region needs it….Don’t let us sell ourselves short…There will be threats of many kinds and at many levels….But if we have unity among ourselves in the Caribbean and with the rest of the ACP, we will prevail.”Ramphal in his opening statement to the gathering reiterated that when Gill initialed the EPA on December 16 last, he was just authenticating the text as that which had been negotiated, emphasizing that by that act of initialing, Caribbean countries, did not become obliged under international law, treaty law (or WTO rules), to sign the EPA in that form,Cheap Jerseys From China, “or at all.”He noted that ‘consent to be bound’ requires a further policy decision and a formal step which in this case is a signature, “Moreover, they are not precluded by international law, by treaty law (or WTO rules), from renegotiating that initialled agreement…This much is clear from general international law and more specifically from the 1970 Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties.”According to Sir Shridath, the reason he sought to include that in the EPA consultations was because it has been suggested, nationally and regionally, that since “we” have initialed the EPA, governments are obliged to sign the initialled text.“That is simply wrong,” he emphasized, adding that no one should feel constrained by that act of initialing alone, in that too many have taken refuge in that misconception, implying that we have to do ‘the right thing’ and sign, “when to sign this agreement in its present form may be the wrong thing for generations of West Indians.”Regarding the questionable aspects of the EPA, sir Shridath said that in the Cotonou Agreement there was a provision where Europe committed, in the absence of a trade agreement. “Europe will examine all alternative possibilities, in order to provide these countries with a new framework for trade which is equivalent to their existing situation and in conformity with WTO rules.”The existing arrangement at that time was that of preferential access to the European Markets.RECIPROCITY The notion of reciprocity was also high on the agenda of all and sundry involved in the consultations, in that CARIFORUM had to liberalise some 80 per cent of its imports from Europe resulting in the loss of billions of dollars in the region.According to Sir Shridath’s perspective on the notion it did not take ‘rocket science’ to work out that if you place a burden of equal magnitude on one who is weak and another who is strong that you have enlarged their relative inequality.He noted that reciprocity as a principle has a ring of fairness about it; but that is as between equals.“Between factors of unequal strength and capacity, ‘reciprocity’ is pernicious… If you say that you with your hundreds and we with our millions shall have the same right of establishment, the same right to do business in each other’s country, have you produced a fair result?”He noted that the idea of reciprocity in the EPA has set the stage for an unequal contest, “Yet if there is a mantra that is recited throughout the EPA it is ‘reciprocity’. In fact it is made the credo of the EPA”He questioned that the Europeans would know better given that,Cheap Jerseys From China Outlet, Aristotle in his ‘Ethics’ propounded the doctrine that: as between unequals, equity requires not reciprocity but proportionality.”Sir Shridath reminded the gathering that COTED Mini