President of Guyana Bharrat Jagdeo. Guyana has been one of the most vocal critics of the new trade agreement with Europe. - File

Director General of the Caribbean Regional Negotiating Machinery (CRNM), Henry Gill, said the September 2 signing of the Cariforum-European Union Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA) was still on, despite calls for the new trade deal to be renegotiated.

The documents were already in Barbados awaiting the signing ceremony, Gill said Friday.

Guyana's president, Bharrat Jagdeo, and a number of regional academics have called for the EPA to be renegotiated, but Gill said to do so would be extremely complicated and virtually impossible.

National consultation

The CRNM head has said which countries have confirmed their presence at the table on September 2, but said he expected Guyana, which will hold a national consultation before making a decision, to sign at the ceremony.

"If its national consultations include the major producers - sugar, rice, fisheries, and forestry products - and on the basis of their input a decision is made, I see no reason why Guyana will not sign because it is in the interest of all those industries to have EPA market access," Gill said.

He also warned that if any of the CARICOM leaders refused to sign the EPA next month, it could pose problems for the region.

Hold-up

"If a country does not sign, I'm afraid that I must say that the likelihood is that will hold up the whole agreement," said Gill.

"The signatories have been spelt out very clearly on the CARIFORUM side, just as they have been spelt out very clearly on the European side so if there is a change in that, it means that the whole documentation has to be reverted to the European Council and that will take quite some time because you don't convene it at the snap of the finger. So, if I'm correct it means that this can hold up the entire process," Gill added.