TECHNIFICATION, SWEETIFICATION, TREATYFICATION

Abstract

This essay discusses the lessons to be learnt from the efforts of a Caribbean citizens' coalition to secure review and renegotiation of the Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA) negotiated between 15 Caribbean countries and the European Union in 2008. To this end it examines the roles of ideology, power, governance and politics. It argues that the EPA institutionalizes a relationship of asymmetrical power with the European Union that is based on the principles of neoliberal globalization; and that it was secured through the manipulation of an unequal power relationship buttressed by the use of neoliberal economic theory to provide a cover for commercial motives. In explaining the politics of the EPA, it proposes the existence of a ‘Technification-Sweetification-Treatyfication’ syndrome. This refers to the use of technical jargon in policy debates in ways that restrict broad political participation in decision-making; to exaggeration of the presumed benefits of the agreement in order to facilitate its political acceptance; and to incorporation of the agreement into a legally binding international treaty in ways that circumscribe present and future government policies. Citizen advocacy on the EPA was further complicated by the amorphous structure of regional governance and by the organizational and ideological weaknesses of the regional progressive movement. These lessons can help to inform the future strategies of Caribbean governments and civil society.