Elizabeth Morgan | Credibility of OACPS members at stake

This week, I am following up on last week’s article concerning the controversy surrounding the signing of the EU/OACPS Samoa Agreement.

On Wednesday, November 15, the 27 member states of the European Union (EU), as committed in July, signed the Samoa Agreement. Of the 79 members of the Organization of African, Caribbean, and Pacific States (OACPS), 41 member states signed in Samoa and three signed prior to the meeting. This is a total of 44. Among these 44, there were six countries from the Caribbean OACPS Forum (CARIFORUM) – Barbados, Belize, Dominican Republic, Haiti, St Vincent and the Grenadines, and Suriname.

For various reasons, 35 OACPS members did not sign, including eight from CARIFORUM – Jamaica among them.

The Roman Catholic Archbishop of Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago, Most Rev Charles Jason Gordon, seen in a video clip, passionately welcomed Trinidad and Tobago not signing this agreement which he interpreted as the EU imposing upon Trinidad and Tobago an ideology and a value system that is not theirs.

He stated that by signing this agreement, Trinidad and Tobago would be required to impose legislation allowing abortion, transgender, LGBTQ, comprehensive sex education, and a range of other values foreign to his country.

These and other comments made by Archbishop Gordon indicated to me that he was not familiar with the text of the agreement which he was addressing. His views were aligned with those of the Jamaica Coalition for a Healthy Society (JCHS). If you throw in a reference to colonialism and slavery, these are all issues which generate a lot of emotion in this region.

From my research, it is my understanding that the issues raised by Archbishop Gordon and JCHS were on the table during the negotiations with the EU, raised by OACPS members, including members from CARIFORUM. These issues were aired in both the CARIFORUM and OACPS at the technical and ministerial levels. CARIFORUM/OACPS negotiators placed proposals on the table to resolve these issues. Their proposals were accepted by the EU party.

An article on the website of the Gender in Geopolitics Institute, posted April 26, 2021, titled ‘The rights of LGBTI people or the sacrifices of the (post) Cotonou Agreement’, indicate that issues of gender identity and sexual orientation featured in the OACPS/EU negotiations. They did not go where the EU would originally have liked, as account was taken of difference of opinion with the OACPS and in the EU itself. It is stated that Robert Dussey, OACPS lead negotiator from Togo, respected these cultural differences, and for him, Africa and the OACPS were winners from these negotiations, because they did not capitulate. This article concludes that sexual orientation and gender identity are absent from the new EU/ACP partnership agreement.

Thereafter, CARIFORUM/OACPS, at their ministerial meetings, indicated that they were satisfied with the new agreement as amended and approved initialing the text which signalled conclusion of the negotiations. They were ready to proceed to signing.

OACPS REITERATING THEIR COMMITMENT

Following the initialing by the lead negotiators in April 2021, Hungary from the EU side, in the European Council, refused to agree to signing this text. For the EU to sign the agreement, there had to be a unanimous decision in the council.

As the signing was further delayed in the EU up to July this year, the OACPS continued to signal, in its meetings and meetings with the EU, that it was satisfied with the text and ready to sign, urging the EU to resolve its problems.

Note the following:

Senator the Hon Dr Amery Browne, Minister of Foreign and CARICOM Affairs of Trinidad and Tobago, was president of the OACPS Council of Ministers in the second half of 2022. In November 2022, Minister Browne presided over the 115th Session of the OACPS Council and was co-president of the 45th Session of the ACP-EU Council of Ministers. During these meetings, it is reported that the OACPS Council reiterated the need to sign the new OACPS-EU Partnership Agreement. Minister Browne, in this capacity, also addressed the 42nd Joint OACPS/EU Parliamentary Assembly.

In a statement, Hon Mahen Kumar Seeruttun of Mauritius, President of the OACPS Council of Ministers, at the 43rd session of the ACP-EU Joint Parliamentary Assembly in Brussels, Belgium, 27 June 2023, raised “the important issue of the continued delay in the signing of the Post-Cotonou Partnership Agreement … And today, more than two years after initialing, we have failed to sign the agreement because of no fault of the OACPS … I urge you to appeal to the European Council to do whatever is possible to put an end to this stalemate which has lasted for far too long.”

Note also that CARIFORUM/OACPS parliamentarians were involved in endorsing the signing of the Samoa Agreement.

So, after nearly two and a half years of consistently confirming their commitment to the Samoa Agreement, 35 OACPS members are yet to sign it. For CARIFORUM, which was among those that advocated for this agreement in its current structure, its position on the signing needs to be clarified in coming weeks.

How many of the eight countries will be signing? Trinidad and Tobago has said that it is completing internal processes. The surprise of the group is Jamaica, and it will be interesting to see what decision the Government takes.

In my opinion, the OACPS’s credibility as a negotiating partner is currently at stake.

Elizabeth Morgan is a specialist in international trade policy and international politics. Email feedback to columns@gleanerjm.com