Dear all
 
David Jessop (Caribbean Council of Europe) writes a column entitled 'The
Week in Europe' which is published in various newspapers in the Caribbean.
He has kindly consented to allow me to send this column out to the mailbase
members every week. The column deals with the relationship between Caribbean
states and Europe. I am sure it will prove an informative addition to the
mailbase and who knows, it might stimulate some discussion!
 
Amanda 
The Week in Europe

By David Jessop

A little over a month ago, the 71 nation group of African, Caribbean and
Pacific states (the ACP) met in a packed late night session in Brussels.
There, the ACP Council of Ministers agreed by acclamation to support Cuba's
wish to become a signatory to the successor arrangement to the Lomé
Convention. This will be known either as the Suva Convention or possibly the
Suva Partnership Agreement and will be signed in Fiji at the end of May.

The unanimous ACP endorsement of Cuba's application - proposed by the
Dominican Republic and sponsored by the Caribbean - provides full support
for any decision Cuba might take to accede to the new agreement. However, it
does not ensure the European Union (EU) will agree. 

The ACP decision while not a formal part of the post Lomé negotiations
leaves the EU in the position of preparing to study any detailed request
from the Cuban Government. Havana had earlier sent the EU written
notification requesting membership and Cuba's observers at the negotiations
had indicated Cuba's desire to become a member on the new Convention. 

What is now required is a much closer understanding of Cuba's intentions in
relation to the new arrangement. These have not as yet been fully spelt out
but it appears that Cuba wishes to accede to the new agreement as soon as
possible. However, this is not to say it wants necessarily to make use of
the provisions of Lomé or most aspects of the Suva Convention. Cuba has yet
to decide how much of what presently is on offer to the ACP it will seek.
For instance it could be that it may not seek to access the existing trade
and aid provisions but seek instead some minimalist basis for involvement
while participating fully in the next round of trade negotiations. The
reasons for this are complex. 

At present Cuba is the only nation in the Americas, which does not have any
partnership arrangement with the EU. However, it is in the process of
deepening its economic ties with its Caricom neighbours the independent
members of which are all ACP members. 

In part, the new Suva Convention will provide the basis for the regions of
the ACP to prepare for an eventual transition to free trade with Europe.
This means that the Caribbean as Caricom will enter in 2008 into new trade
arrangements with the EU and over the 12 or more years thereafter, the
region will move to a new largely reciprocal economic relationship with
Europe. Thus future trade negotiations under the Suva Convention will
determine the pace at which Caribbean/EU trade will be liberalised and the
nature and timing of the post 2008 process. It will also allow for special
transitional mechanisms, development assistance, support for industries, and
special exemptions for nations or products. 

In this process Cuba wishes to ensure that its interests are protected and
it is not isolated in trade and economic terms in the region with which it
is integrating. Thus it needs to participate fully in the next ACP/EU
negotiations that begin in 2003 and the only way to achieve this is to
become a signatory to the Suva Convention.

Thus, seen from a Cuban perspective it is positioning more than immediate
trade advantage or politics that should be at the heart of any discussion on
its accession to the Suva Convention. Despite this a new relationship of the
kind envisaged could give substance to a Cuban development-led dialogue with
Europe and it is this and its political implications, which continue to
interest many observers. 

Up to now exchanges between Cuba and the EU have been conducted in the
context of a common European position. This has been politically led and
seeks a calibrated series of responses from Cuba to any steps taken by the
EU to improve the relationship. Not surprisingly this approach has made
little if any progress. Indeed, some EU diplomats comment wryly that the
EU's present position on Cuba is neither common nor a position. 

It is in part this thinking that has led to some EU members states, most
notably France and Spain, to believe that movement might be better achieved
through the broad based and nuanced development mechanisms contained in the
new Convention

To become a signatory to the new agreement Cuba will require the support of
all 15 EU member states. The European Commission has now begun the process
of informal inter-European consultations. So far the EU has not officially
commented on the Cuban application other than to note it willingness to
begin a dialogue, but some member states have already made it known that
they would not want Cuba offered the same terms as existing ACP states.
Instead they are arguing that it will be necessary for the EU to consider
carefully what conditions it would require Cuba to fulfil if it were to
become a signatory.

This is short sighted. Few would quarrel with the reservations of nations
like Germany about aspects of Cuba's system, but this is to miss the point.
The EU's relationship with the ACP embraces a wide range of nations with
different political and economic systems. It has partnership and other
programmes with countries in which there has been a total absence of the
rule of law or worse. This is to say nothing of the vast numbers of ACP
countries that cannot match the levels of social provision Cuba is able to
offer. More importantly Cuba within a trade and development framework offers
practical ways to integrate the island into the Caribbean mainstream and new
ways for the EU to engage in dialogue on a wide range of issues.

Cuba inside the Suva arrangement is a necessity for the Caribbean if it is
to have weight in the international community and the ability to resist at
the WTO and elsewhere the worst excesses of trade liberalization. Cuba
within the ACP will be of value to the organisation and enable new types of
south-south linkages to be created given Cuba's unique and historic role in
Africa. Cuba within a new ACP relationship with the EU no matter how
initially minimal a position Havana might seek, places Cuba firmly within
the mainstream of Europe's relations with the developing world. 

ACP states have largely completed the facilitation process. It is now up to
Cuba to make a case to EU member states as to why Europe should agree that
it becomes a signatory to the new Convention. But more importantly the EU
must consider carefully whether there is any value in leaving Cuba isolated
any longer. As this column has noted before any future instability in Cuba
will have unpredictable ramifications for the region as a whole. 

David Jessop is the Executive Director of the Caribbean Council for Europe .


March 3rd 2000



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