PNC/R misleading the public - Rohee
Guyana Chronicle
September 28, 2003
(GINA) - Foreign Trade and International Minister Clement Rohee has charged the People’ National Congress Reform (PNC/R) with misleading the public.
According to Minister Rohee, the opposition party has done so “by pretending that the Government has not provided the National Assembly and key stakeholders with comprehensive documentation and information reflecting its trade policy and strategy, particularly as it pertains to the current external negotiations” at the World Trade Organisation (WTO), the free Trade areas of the Americas (FTAA) and the African Caribbean and Pacific States-European Union (ACP-EU).
The PNC/R, at its recent media conference, claimed that the Government is backward in its management of the economy.
They claimed too that with “the absence of any coherent Government policies coupled with the collapse of the Cancun negotiation, the entrenched position of the major trading blocks, along with the expected intense competition amongst developing countries will ensure that our rice industry, in particular, and the agricultural sector in general, remain in a state of critical crisis”.
Rohee said it should be recalled that in 2002, Government publicly launched its national Trade Strategy prior to which extended consultations were held with a wide cross-section of the Guyanese public, including the PNC/R.
“The Party never submitted any comments or recommendations on the advance copy of the draft National Trade Strategy,” Minister Rohee pointed out.
He said therefore, “to claim that there is an absence of any coherent Government policies as regards these critical matters is to throw dust in people’s eye, ignore, for political reasons, the efforts by Government to formulate national interest positions and to deny its pro-activist approach in treating with current external trade negotiations.”
The National Trade Strategy promotes an approach that is market-oriented and insists upon adherence to Guyana’s international obligations. It recognises that the country faces significant challenges as a small vulnerable economy.
The PNC/R also claimed that “as signatories to the Cotonou Agreement and the FTAA, we still stand the risk of being forced to accept less advantageous agreements” and that “Government has been silent on this critical matter and seems clueless on what to do”.
Rohee said the Opposition’s charges have no basis and that the task for Guyana’s Trade Strategy is to manage the threats and opportunities in the global market. He reminded the PNC/R that Guyana is not negotiating on its own at the WTO, the FTAA and the EU.
“We are an integral part of, and play an active role on the key institutions of CARICOM where policy guidelines are formulated for our negotiators at the three theatres of external negotiations,” Rohee said.
He pointed to the Prime Ministerial Sub-Committee on External Negotiations, the Council for Trade and Economic Development (COTED) including special sessions to treat exclusively with external trade negotiations and the ACP Ministerial Sessions which hammer out common positions for, and approaches to the negotiations with the European Union for Economic Partnership Agreements (EPA’s).
Rohee noted that Guyana has made significant contributions to the formulations of the Caribbean Guidelines (negotiating mandate) for the EPA negotiations.
“To help generate and fashion national position for the purpose of contributing actively and constructively the formulation of regional negotiating briefs on specific issues, the Government, in 1997, created a National Advisory Committee on external Negotiations (NACEN). The PNC/R has a representative on this body,” he pointed out.
Other initiatives to enhance the trade negotiations included a National Trade Advisory Committee with several technical working groups and a Sub-Committee set up by Cabinet comprising Ministers with a stake in trade policy and external negotiations.
According to Rohee, the establishment of the Ministry of Foreign Trade and International Cooperation is an indication of the importance and high priority Government attaches to trade policy and trade negotiations.
He noted that trade policy development has to be considered in the context of Government’s wider objectives to create equitable levels of growth and poverty alleviation.
“Whilst Government is confident that the multilateral arena can be flexible to allow for multiple objectives,” Rohee said, “there is full recognition that this outcome is by no means automatic”.
The Minister, however, noted that “Government is striving to improve competitiveness of the major industries and promote investment into emerging sectors”, which is a challenging task.
Meanwhile, Guyana is among several CARIFORUM countries to soon benefit from 24 million Euros assistance to improve the Region’s rice sector. Once all the institutional arrangements are in place, including an implementing body in Guyana comprising representatives from the local rice sector, and the CARIFORUM members, Minister Rohee is confident that Guyana could start utilising this assistance by year end or early next year.