Guyana calls for meaningful action on small states
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Text of report by Caribbean Media Corporation news agency website
KAMPALA, Uganda, CMC - Guyana’s President Bharrat Jagdeo is lobbying for the creation of a new and special category of “small states” and for that grouping to be recognised at the level of the United Nations (UN) and the World Trade Organization (WTO).
At the moment, these international organizations only recognise three categories of countries - Least Developed Countries (LDCs), developing countries and developed countries.
Jagdeo, however, argued that a fourth category is needed to deal with the needs of small states.
“Unless we get this category of states accommodated in the lexicon of the development organizations, at the WTO and the UN, they would feel they have no obligation to provide special arrangements for those states,” he told the Caribbean Media Corporation.
The Guyanese leader, who plans to raise the issue at this weekend’s Commonwealth Heads of Government Summit, said he was very concerned that Caribbean states which currently do not qualify as LDCs were being “lumped together” with more industrialised developing countries.
“We are saying that in the category of developing countries, you have the Indias and Brazils of this world and the Guyana and St Kitts of the world and we don’t have the same circumstances and our ability to react to global changes are different, so unless we get that in place - the recognition of this fourth category of states - Europe will not provide special arrangements for us,” he said.
He also pointed to the ongoing negotiations with Europe for a new Economic Partnership Agreement, suggesting that the fact that there is no special category called small states “is why Europe today is saying the EPA has to be WTO compatible”.
It, therefore, follows that “if they had recognised a fourth category of states and the WTO had had a provision which says that there should be no reciprocity in trade for this fourth category of states, that’s small states, then Europe could not have made that excuse, pressing for reciprocity,” Jagdeo said.
Though not optimistic that any action will be taken on his proposal during the Uganda summit, Jagdeo intends to continue pressing the matter.
He said the need for special provisions for small states is reflected in the communiqués of previous meetings but said there was a need for an effective follow up plan that can lead to change in the focus of development institutions.
“The UK and Canada, I thought that they would play a greater role in doing this, in advocating and lobbying for small states, because they sit at the G8 but they are not,” the Guyana president lamented.
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Filed by Nikola Cvetkovic under Development