Trade unionist: We’re not ready for FTAA

TRINIDAD and Tobago and the Caribbean as a region are not ready for the FTAA, because we first have to have a common position on the issues which affect us.

That is the view of trade unionist David Abdullah, who made his position known on the FTAA yesterday during the weekly luncheon of the Rotary Club of Port-of-Spain at the Queen’s Park Oval. Abdullah said the Caribbean region has to strongly articulate its position at the upcoming Miami meeting of the negotiating committees of the FTAA. He also emphasised that this country’s lobby to have the FTAA headquartered here must not be more important than the differential treatment of small economies. He lamented that the region must first identify our common interests, which he pointed out was not an easy task, especially since “we argue on everything,” and there are major differences in our interests as individual countries.

Abdullah said it was a bad situation for the region to be in, since the FTAA and other processes like the WTO, were not only trading agreements, but “in fact the completion of policies set back in the 70’s in terms of structural adjustment.” He said a simple thing like setting up an office at the Piarco airport for the Bureau of Standards to check suitcase traders had not been put in place, therefore he questioned our readiness for the FTAA, “if we can’t get that right.” He was however adamant that the region still had time to influence its position on the issue, but firmly underscored the point that we “have to identify our national interests.”

Abdullah said there were nine negotiating areas within the FTAA and for the last four or five years there have been discussions to find agreement on each, but without success. He said when the negotiating committee met here recently they were faced with some 8,000 items on the agenda, which were not agreed to by the nine committees. He said following the Miami meeting later this month, the Trade Ministerial meeting would be held to “fundamentally decide” where to go with the FTAA, or if there will be a compromise and implement it. He said at that meeting several options could be exercised. Either the implementation date of 2005 be pushed back to 2008, the scale of issues under negotiations be reduced, or some countries will go ahead and others stay out.