CARICOM’s failure to advance stronger EU and the Afro-Caribbean relations: missedopportunities under the Cotonou agreement

Presenter: Alex Bruno

European Union-Caribbean relations revisited Florida International University –Modesto A. Maidique Campus

11200 SW 8th Street –Miami, FL 33199 –MARC 290

February 18, 2020.

Cotonou, Benin.

This Agreement was signed in Cotonou, Benin (2000) and is known as the Cotonou Agreement . “The Cotonou Agreement is the latest in a series of conventions with their genesis in the late 1950s” (Kinyanjui, 2001).

C A R I C O M, because of its mandate to promote and support a unified CaribbeanCommunity that is inclusive, resilient, competitive; sharing in economic, social andcultural prosperity, serves as a quasi go-between member states and Cotonouthrough C A R I F O R U M.

CARICOM – Chaguaramas, 1973 ACP – Georgetown, 2000

CARICOM is a party to negotiations between the African,Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) Group of States and the EuropeanUnion (EU), the 27 members, for a successor agreement to theACP/EU Cotonou Partnership Agreement (CPA) formallycommenced on 28 September 2018 (Morgan, 2019).

L o m é I - In 1973, the United Kingdom’s accession to the EuropeanCommon Market raised the question of enlarging the associationwith overseas countries and territories to include the English-speaking African countries and the Caribbean and Pacific states.This was achieved with the Lomé Convention of February 1975,which marked a new stage in the EEC’s cooperation withdeveloping countries within an enlarged framework, that of theAfrican, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) countries (CVCE.EU by UNI.LU.2020).

Development Cooperation – Trade – Political Dimensions‘A house built on three pillars’

A new way of doing cooperationPoverty reduction

Promoting dialogueEconomic cooperation

Priority to political cooperation

The importance of P O L I T I C A L D I A LO G U E is the key tenet.

Certain provisions of the Cotonou agreement on political cooperation have never been applied, like Article 97, which foresees dialogue and sanctions against corrupt regimes. This is seen as “a weakness of the deal” (Barbière, 2018).

The trade aspect of Cotonou is covered by economic agreement between CARIFORUM/EU.

Each member state sign the Cotonou Agreement utilizing domestic procedures in 1975 when it was Lomé. So, the member states are party to Cotonou. June 2000, 2005, 2010.

CARICOM is important because of its membership with the EU through CARIFORUM. The relation is at the regional level and is tied into funding for various activities.

CARICOM participates and in Financial Development Program.

CARICOM has a statement or position in negotiates issues of review with the Cotonou.

Each Member States sign agreement (through domestic procedures) with a mechanism for political dialogue as a means of settling issues relation to corruption, human rights issues and others. Dialogue can be had at the local and regional level.

CARICOM participates and has a voice through the ACP as part of CARIFORUM (CARICOM + DR & Cuba) among the six regions: CARIFORUM, West Africa, South Africa, Central Africa, East Africa and The Pacific. Cotonou is an overarching broad framework.

Article 96 consultations have never taken place in the Caribbean region.

Why not?

The weakness or failure in the structure of the civil service of CARICOM member states paves the way for the lack of such interventions.

Prime Ministers / Chief Executives take unilateral action to sign on to other arrangements and relationships for funding: ALBA, Ambassadorship, Economic Citizenship and other less formal partnerships.

Lack of strict punitive measures to punish corrupt and corrupting member states.

CARICOM’s hands-off approach from the Domestic affairs of member state – except for matters of state security through the RSS which basically props up rogue regimes.

Status: Jamaica (?/+), Cuba (-), Dominica (?/+) Barbados (+), St. Kitts/Nevis (?/+), St. Vincent (?/+), Grenada (?/+), Antigua (?/+), Haiti (-), DR (?/-), Surinam (?/+) Trinidad(?/+)

Cotonou Agreement: Article 97.

Consultation procedure and appropriate measures as regards corruption.

Members: ANTIGUA AND BARBUDA, THE COMMONWEALTH OF THE BAHAMAS,

BARBADOS, BELIZE, [CUBA – No!] THE COMMONWEALTH OF DOMINICA,

THE DOMINICAN REPUBLIC, GRENADA, THE REPUBLIC OF GUYANA, THE REPUBLICOF HAITI, JAMAICA, SAINT CHRISTOPHER AND NEVIS, SAINT LUCIA, SAINTVINCENT AND THE GRENADINES, THE REPUBLIC OF SURINAME, THE REPUBLIC OFTRINIDAD AND TOBAGO.

Reference:

ACP

CARICOM

CARIFORUM

COTONOU

Barbière, C. 2018. The Cotonou agreement, has it fulfilled its promises? Sourced from https://www.euractiv.com/section/agenda-for-change/news/the-cotonou-agreement-has-it-fulfilled-its-promises/ on February 13, 2020.

Lodge, L. 2018. SHRIDATH RAMPHAL CENTRE (SRC) TRADING THOUGHTS. Sourced from https://today.caricom.org/2019/12/17/a-perspective-on-caribbean-post-cotonou-negotiations/ on February 15, 2020.

Morgan, E. 2019. Current Status of the ACP/EU Post Cotonou Negotiations. Retrieved from https://today.caricom.org/2019/04/08/current-status-of-the-acp-eu-post-cotonou-negotiations/ on February 17,

2020.

2020 CVCE.EU by UNI.LU. 2020. Sourced from https://www.cvce.eu/en/education/unit-content/-/unit/dd10d6bf-e14d-40b5-9ee6-37f978c87a01/9a69c7f9-1ea2-4e6c-8cdb-1dee40ac5714 on February 12, 2020.