GEORGETOWN, Guyana – Caribbean nations are grumbling that an aid package of euro165 million is not enough to help implement a free-trade agreement with the European Union.
Caricom Secretary General Edwin Carrington says nations were surprised at the amount although no specific figure had been outlined in the recently signed accord.
The pact lifts import duties and ends quotas on Caribbean products that have capped the amount of goods shipped to Europe.
Carrington said Saturday that the $212 million also would help create a single Caribbean market with a unified currency.
The 15-nation trade bloc signed the pact amid warnings that further trade liberalization would inundate small Caribbean economies with less expensive European goods.
