BRIDGETOWN, Barbados (CMC):

The Caribbean Policy Development Centre (CPDC), one of the leading voices against the Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA) with Europe, says it welcomes the move by some governments to delay signing the new trade deal.

"CPDC will like to reiterate its call for Caribbean governments to push for the renegotiation of the agreement even at this time, to correct the flaws and the contentious areas within the agreement," the Barbados-based CPDC said in a statement on Wednesday.

On Tuesday, the government of St Lucia became the latest government to announce that it would delay signing the agreement, which was negotiated between the European Union and the Caribbean Forum (CARIFORUM) countries that also includes Caribbean Community (CARICOM) countries.

Not ready

Guyana and Grenada have also said they would not be ready to sign the accord on September 2, but Barbados and Trinidad and Tobago say they are ready and willing to sign the deal.

CPDC also urged governments "not to be satisfied with a flawed agreement, not to be satisfied with an imperfect agreement, not to be satisfied with a hastily initialled agreement, but rather to push for renegotiation to ensure that the agreement will have long term benefits, create tangible sectoral linkages and, most importantly, remove the less than progressive elements of the agreement."