…to the EPA with the EU?
After the visit by those 250 businessmen and leaders from Africa – flying in on the jet from one of their member countries – to solidify business links with us in Caricom, your Eyewitness experienced a surge of hope that, at long last, neocolonialism was being challenged!!Not to get too heavy, but just before he was assassinated, Kwame Nkrumah – who’d led Ghana as the first African country to gain independence – had emphasised that new forms of domination were being forged by the ex-colonial powers.
He had emphasised the need for a full-blown African Union even before the European Union was formed out of the European Economic Commission (EEC). He was opposed by leaders such as Tanzania’s Nyerere, who felt a more gradualist approach was needed. Well, we have lived to see that the new linkages – such as the Lome Agreement, which was succeeded by the Cotonou Agreement with us lumped as the Africa-Caribbean-Pacific bloc – all basically favouring the old colonial masters, such as Britain, France, and the new hegemon on the block – the US!! And when conditions changed and they didn’t need our cheap raw materials like sugar and cotton, the agreements with their “preferential” clauses that were supposed to last “in perpetuity” were thrown overboard!! The question was “preferential” for whom??
But hold it…as they always did, didn’t the Massas float another mechanism – supposedly for “our good”, but yet always working out in their favour?? They certainly did!! Remember the Economic Partnership Agreements (EPAs)?? We were decoupled into regional blocks – like us signing on as Cariforum, or some West African nations doing so as a block – for the old “divide and conquer” to play out. The EPAs were supposed to replace “aid with trade”, where we were gonna be on an equal footing!!
Yeah, right!! History does not repeat itself, but it certainly rhymes!! It was just another variant of Nkrumah’s “neo-colonialism”, where everything’s slanted to benefit the old Massas, and we’re left holding the bag!!
But you’d remember, dear reader, that at the time we were supposed to sign along the dotted line, around 2007, Jagdeo, then President, smelled a rat and balked. TT’s Manning was very snarky, as he was sure TT would’ve been able to capture European markets!! Jagdeo, however, pointed out just what we stated above – the terms were too one-sided. We were now gonna be held to “European standards” – which they alone determined, of course – not only for the goods and services to be traded – but in socio-political development!! So, here we are – CariForum’s EPA has gone nowhere, as have all the other EPAs with Africa and the Pacific!!
But we now got Africa independently collaborating with us to develop ourselves!! Amandla!!
…PetroCaribe??
Remember PetroCaribe?? The Venezuelan initiative launched by Chavez in 2005, wherein they supplied oil to a host of nations in Caricom and around the Caribbean – including Cuba – on soft terms?? 5%-50% up front, with a grace period of one to two years; the remainder to be paid through a 17-25-year financing agreement – with 1% interest if oil prices are above US$40 per barrel? In our case, we pretty much bartered our rice – at a very high price, thank you – for the up-front payment.
The Venezies broadened the relationship beyond oil in 2013 as the “Bolivarian Alliance for the Americas” (ALBA), and attempted to become regional leaders through their oil largesse. Buying friends!! A number of our Caricom colleagues fell for the bait. With the collapse of the Venezuelan economy by 2019, however, the matter became moot. The question for us now is: if the moves by the Americans succeed in reviving their oil production, where will Caricom stand on the Border Controversy??
There are no permanent friends…
…to Lil Joe?
Your Eyewitness was (pleasantly) surprised to see “Lil Joe” Harmon at the Afreximbank gathering. With all the talk of elections to select a new PNC leader, is he about to throw his hat into the ring??
