By: Nadine Wilson-Harris
Jamaica was one of 35 countries that delayed signing the contentious ACP-EU Treaty on November 15 when the 79 members of the African, Caribbean and Pacific States (OACPS) met in Samoa for the 46th session of the ACP-EU Council of Ministers.
The Samoa Agreement which succeeds the Cotonou Agreement, establishes a new legal framework of relations for the next 20 years among the EU’s 27 nations and the 79 OACPS states including 47 African, 16 Caribbean and 15 Pacific countries.
The 35 hold-outs, ten Caribbean states. Although talks of the new treaty began in 2019 and negotiators had signed off on the deal in 2021, there are indications that some countries are still uncomfortable with the terms of the agreement.
Jamaica’s decision not to sign the Treaty was pre-empted by appeals from the Jamaica Coalition for a Healthy Society (JCHS), who asked that the country’s legislators take a closer look at the language of the Agreement. The Coalition then instructed persons to call the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade (MFAFT) to ask that the treaty not be signed. The group and other faith based organizations, had threatened to take further protest action when the country’s foreign affairs minister Senator Kamina Johnson-Smith sent a letter to the president of the JCHS, Dr Wayne West, indicating that the country intends to delay signing the agreement.
In her letter, the Minister sought to underscore that Jamaica is a founding member of the OACPS and was an active participant in the negotiations on the Samoa Agreement between the OACPS and the EU. She said the views of several stakeholders, including members of civil society were taken into consideration during the negotiations and the Ministry was assured that the language does not supersede Jamaica’s domestic legislation.
“We have none the less taken note of the concerns which continues to be raised in the domestic space. Consultations have been undertaken within the government as well as between the government and members of civil society. We will continue to have these consultations with a view to providing assurance concerning our unfailing intent to always protect the interest of Jamaica and Jamaicans, with the laws of Jamaica as our guide.”
News of the delay irked several gender and LGBTQ rights advocates who then signed a petition urging the government to sign the Agreement. There has been no official word since from the Ministry, regarding the final outcome.
According to media reports, those that did not sign, includes heavy weights such as Nigeria, Rwanda, and Senegal. Unlike its predecessor, the 2000 Cotonou Agreement, the Samoa Agreement consists of three separate regional protocols and establishes “common principles” in key areas such as human rights, climate change and migration.
A coalition of civil society organisations (CSOs) in Nigeria had urged the government not to sign the “deceptive treaty”. Several of the groups noted during a press conference that the treaty is deviously worded to impose the EU’s LGBT agenda on ACP countries.
The hold-outs have until the end of the year to sign or risk losing access to loans from the European Investment Bank, which relies on the agreement for its legal operating mandate outside the EU.
The Caribbean countries that did not sign:
- Antigua and Barbuda
- The Bahamas
- Cuba
- Dominica
- Grenada
- Guyana
- Jamaica
- St Kitts and Nevis
- St Lucia
- Trinidad and Tobago