Non-tariff barriers that target Guyanese exports remain a sore issue for the Georgetown Chamber of Commerce and Industry (GCCI), with the Chamber questioning the relevance of the Caribbean Community (Caricom) when little help is forthcoming.
This was related when the GCCI held a press conference at its Waterloo Street, Georgetown office on Wednesday, featuring executives and even a former President. GCCI Senior Vice President Timothy Tucker noted that the Chamber is at a point where it has to question the relevance of Caricom.
According to Tucker, throughout the history of Caricom, “we’ve had situations where we are limited in what we can export to the Caribbean, even to Trinidad. They’ve put non-tariff barriers on honey, they just released the ones on pepper and pineapple. There’s still a lot of barriers on honey, pineapple, pumpkins. Also, you had situations where, when Guyana was exporting coconut water and its products, they, themselves, shut that industry down”.
“I would have spoken about the suspected hepatitis case in Guyana and then, suddenly, the ban on all poultry products. When Guyana was approved to export poultry products throughout the Caribbean, we had even Jamaica… they used one of their laws talking about water being used. In the height of all of this, why isn’t Caricom unravelling these problems? Is Caricom still relevant in terms of trade negotiations in the Caribbean?”
Added to this, he explained that neighbouring countries like Trinidad moved to get certain tariffs suspended by the Council for Trade and Economic Development (COTED). Other new hurdles have also been raised.
“I think Trinidad just did an application to COTED to waive the Common External Tariff (CET) on safety equipment coming into Trinidad. And Guyana, on the other end, we’re now going on the coat-tails of Trinidad to get that removed so we can continue to be competitive”.
“Now COTED, they’re now relooking at front labour, after most of our manufacturers would have gone forward and gone up with their standard, you see things raised by some Caribbean nations trying to move the goalpost. So I think we’ve reached to the point from the trading and investing standpoint, we have to sit back and assess the relevance of Caricom”.
Oil
Tucker noted that his sentiments are shared by most in the GCCI, particularly the Trade and Investment Committee, and since Guyana is about to become one of the world’s newest oil producers, he expressed the view that Guyana dropped the ball not only with negotiating trade deals but also even developing its local content framework.
According to Tucker, Guyana’s newfound influence should have been leveraged to help other sectors and remove needless trade barriers. This is a view recently expressed by People’s Progressive Party Presidential Candidate, Dr Irfaan Ali.
“Now, an official request to remove safety items (from CET) has been made. Now when that is removed, then our local suppliers – because we don’t have any local content legislation or policy that says you have to buy stuff locally— they will go to Trinidad where 40 per cent (of the price) has been removed. So you know where the competition will go,” Tucker said.
“All of the offshore people, oil and gas people or anyone dealing with safety equipment, will buy from Trinidad because they are the only country in the Caribbean that has requested to have the 40 per cent CET on safety equipment removed. Without Local Content Policy or legislation to protect local business, that’s the purpose of it. We have to fight the tariffs, taxes, VAT, so by the time something comes in here to sell, it’s uncompetitive”.
Even with oil, it is important for Guyana to diversify its economy and find markets for other commodities. Of recent, however, Guyana has had to contend with protectionist measures from the United States, United Kingdom, Jamaica and Trinidad.
In 2019, Jamaican authorities also rejected some 70 metric tonnes of white rice. It was reported that after samples of the rice shipment were sent to the division’s microbiology lab for testing, the results from the tests demonstrated that the rice contained microbial levels which are beyond the accepted limits, thus, making it unfit for human consumption.
This seizure was the first for the year but an epidemic of poor quality rice exiting Guyana was seen in the recent months when Panama rejected some 20 containers of rice from Guyana back in September 2018.
