Guyana instrumental in securing Є 500M from EU negotiations
-in its capacity as chair of ACP

Minister of Foreign Affairs, Carolyn Rodrigues-Birkett at a press conference at her Ministry’s boardroom On Monday, disclosed that preparations leading up to grand event when Guyana will be assuming chairmanship of the Union of South American Nations (UNASUR) on November 26, are on schedule.
            She said that the official visit of the Ecuador’s Foreign Minister, Ricardo Patino led to very successful deliberations and all arrangements are in place to have not only the summit but the foreign ministers’ meeting on November 25 and council of delegates on November 23 and 24 respectively.    
Apart from assuming the chair of UNASUR, Guyana is at present the chair of the African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) Group of States, which was assumed on August 01, for a period of six months.
            The ACP Group of States is a body comprising 79 developing countries from Africa, the Caribbean (CARICOM, Dominican Republic, Cuba and member states from the Pacific). This organisation was established through the Georgetown Agreement in 1975, where Guyana played a major role in its establishment.

Minister of Foreign Affairs, Carolyn Rodrigues-Birkett at the press conference at her Ministry’s boardroom

           “In our capacity as chair of the ACP, Guyana has been instrumental in the conclusion of negotiations with the European Union (EU) to secure a second tranche of  Є 500M for the 18 former sugar protocol countries and this would go from 2011 to 2013,” Minister Rodrigues-Birkett said.
            Guyana has also chaired the ACP consultative group on sugar and has initiated a study to look at the impact by loss of preferential treatment for ACP exports to Europe, on account of trade agreements that the EU has been concluding with countries in Latin and Central American countries.  
            The Foreign Minister said that, “we believe that this is necessary because we are told of the benefits of the Economic Partnership Agreements (EPA) and other markets are also opening and we need to see how it will impact on our markets.”
            Guyana will also be calling for consultations with the EU under Article 12 of the Cotonou Agreement and Article 42 of the CARIFORUM-EU Agreement to foster better economic partnerships.
            The Minister said that during Guyana’s chairmanship, focus will be placed on relations with the ACP and Brazil and China (developing south-south relationship). She explained that this is seen as a necessary step, because the ACP is not only about Guyana’s relations with the EU but rather, it is important to collaborate with other countries as well. 
To date, only the CARIFORUM member states have signed EPA with the EU, several other countries have signed only interim agreements while others have signed none at all.
Minister Rodrigues-Birkett said that this is because of the many difficulties that have been encountered by the ACP Group of States.
“Fundamental to the discussions is the request by most of the other groupings to have the five-year review, as included in the CARFORUM EPA, this was a provision that Guyana also fought for,” she said.
Another issue that will be raised by Guyana with its European counterparts is access to the European Development Fund (EDF).
She explained that many times there are bureaucratic hurdles in accessing this fund and it is hoped that by way of closer working relations, objective external assessments and the need to appreciate Guyana’s policies and realities, these difficulties will be surmounted.