CARIBBEAN-TRADE: Region Making Hay While the Sun Shines

• by IPS Correspondents (bridgetown)
• Thursday, December 01, 1994
• Inter Press Service

BRIDGETOWN, Dic 01 (IPS) - African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) countries say they are making the most of preferential trading agreements while they still exist, while preparing themselves for the new world trading order under the GATT and then the World Trade Organisation.

Delegates from the grouping have been making upbeat presentations throughout a seminar here on Trade and Services Development under the Lome IV Convention between ACP countries and the European Union (EU).

Their optimism about the tangible benefits of the Convention is in marked contrast with the picture of the convention painted on the first day of the seminar, by Geoffrey Barrett, acting head of the Trade and Tourism Develoment Unit of the EU's Directorate General for Development.

In his opening remarks to the meeting on Tuesday Barrett chided Convention members for having failed to live up to expectations.

"Unfortunately we have to recognise that trade cooperation between the ACP and the European Union has not allowed us to achieve the objective which we set i.e. 'to promote trade between the ACP and the Community' and 'to accelerate the growth' of the trade between the partners."

He indicated that if present trends continue "the ACP share of EU imports will be down to two percent of total imports by the year 2000 from over seven percent in 1975." Barrett said that this suggests that "trade preferences are not the main determinant of success in trade."

Trade has been down in the area of agricultural products between the EU and the Caribbean in recent years. Many of the islands have failed to meet their sugar and banana targets because of a succession of misfortunes such as drought, torrential rains and crop disease.

But successive presentations from ACP delegates, while acknowledging these shortcomings, have made the point that their countries were trying their best to use Lome IV.

Luther MIller of the Caribbean Tourism Organisation (CTO) said that since the establishment of a Lome-funded Caribbean Tourism Development Programme 18 months ago, there has been an overall increase in visitor arrivals -- some 11.2 percent in 1993 over the 1992 figure.

Miller pointed to countries such as the Cayman Islands and Barbados which had seen EU visitor arrivals increased by 53 percent and 25.7 percent respectively to bolster his argument.

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