PRESIDENT Bharrat Jagdeo said Guyana will not sign the Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA) until there has been completion of a full national consultation.

Speaking at the opening ceremony of the 29th Caribbean Community (CARICOM) Heads of Government Meeting in Antigua and Barbuda on Tuesday evening, the President said the European Union (EU) continues to seek to impose tariffs on the country’s exports.

The Head of State noted that the EU is aware that Guyana’s exports into Europe cannot withstand tariffs and is using this as a threat.

He said Guyana will sign the EPA after consultations, or “pragmatically earlier if the European Commission continues with its bully boy tactics of seeking to impose tariffs on our exports.”

He said, “I feel we should do only what is necessary to make us World Trade Organisation (WTO) compatible as agreed to in the COTONOU agreement and we should forge greater solidarity with those countries who are initialled partial EPS and those who have not initialled anything so far,” the Head of State said.

The President had long before expressed his dissatisfaction with the agreement and the short time frame which the African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) countries were given to sign the agreement.

The President also addressed the issue of the EU’s insistence during negotiations with the EPA for the protection of the sugar industry in Martinique and Guadeloupe. He noted however, that this is not being reciprocated for the region’s industry.

“Sometimes I feel that it boils down to the question of philosophy and we are seduced by the rhetoric of free trade, rhetoric which is not practiced in the developed part of the world,” the Head of State said.

President Jagdeo stated that there is need for strong argument for preferential treatment for the region.

“On the EPA, we need to have a practical approach, there are many good things enshrined in the agreement as it currently stands and we should seek to preserve those,” he said.

The Head of State noted that governments must decide whether during bilateral relations with the EU there will be intraregional competition and fragmentation.

“Are we going to be competing with each other because we are entering into disagreement not as a region but as individual countries?” President Jagdeo asked.

Meanwhile, the President also addressed the issue of the free movement of people in CARICOM countries. The Head of State noted that the centre of the process of the CARICOM Single Market and Economy (CSME) was the people of the region.

“They are in effect an essential pillar of the CSME and it was in recognition of this that we decided to fast track arrangements for the unrestricted movements of our people throughout the region,” President Jagdeo said.

He noted however, that the very opposite is happening and people cannot enjoy one of the basic rights of hassle free travel as enshrined in the Revised Treaty of Chaguaramas.

The Head of State said, “What I find most disturbing is not the issue of the denial of entry of CARICOM citizens at the various ports of entry in the community but, the humiliation suffered in the hands of some immigration officers at these ports. One of the tragic truths is that we treat foreigners better than we treat our own people.”

President Jagdeo noted that while every member state has a sovereign right to address what may be legitimate security concerns, harassment of citizens is unacceptable.

“The CSME would be a failed enterprise unless people are treated in a dignified manner,” he said.

A number of Guyanese have complained about the treatment they received at the hands of immigration authorities in Barbados. Though these complaints have declined, they have begun to emerge from Guyanese attempting to enter Trinidad and Tobago with a group of Guyanese recently complaining about the treatment they received when they attempted to enter T&T for employment purposes.

Other speakers at the opening ceremony of the Heads of Governments Conference included Prime Minister Winston Baldwin Spencer of Antigua and Barbuda and Jamaica’s Prime Minister Bruce Golding.