As Guyanese manufacturers and producers continue to bemoan the restrictions that hinder export to Caribbean countries, more than 50 items have now been given clearance for trading when the highly-anticipated regional ferry service commences operation between Guyana, Barbados and Trinidad and Tobago.
This was revealed by the Minister within the Public Works Ministry, Deodat Indar, who is Guyana’s lead representative on the regional body that was set up to oversee the operationalisation of the regional ferry service.
Indar made this announcement at the Georgetown Chambers of Commerce of Industry (GCCI) Annual Christmas Dinner and Awards ceremony held last week in Georgetown. During the event, GCCI President, Kester Hutson called for the regional trade barriers to be addressed frontally so that Guyanese companies can have equal opportunities as their trading partners in the Caribbean.
In response, Minister Indar indicated that current trade restrictions on some 54 products including ground provisions and fresh fruits would be removed when the Regional Ferry Service. This, he explained, was agreed to by officials from Guyana, Barbados and Trinidad and Tobago.
According to Indar, a total of 67 items were identified as problematic when it comes to trading within the region and these were divided into two priority groups, ‘A’ and ‘B’, to have the trade restrictions on them removed.
“They have about 13 items in Priority B which are difficult that the countries need to fix to get normalised procedures [for free-trade]. But there were 54 items that you can work with – ground provisions, fresh fruits; different items that you can normalise between the three countries and we have a memorandum to clear those 54 items. So, at least you can start a ferry operation with 54 items from the get-go whilst you work on the others. And that is what we approved,” the Minister told the gathering of business stakeholders.
Indar pointed out that each country had their own type of barriers that impacted free trade.
Honey restrictions
Guyanese exporters have long been complaining about the trade restrictions from CARICOM Member States like Trinidad and Tobago, where certain products like honey are banned.
“If we go with honey, you can’t start the conversation because honey can’t go nowhere. Honey could only go in your kitchen in Guyana. If you take it to Trinidad, there is a law in Trinidad from 1933 that says if it comes 10 nautical miles within the boundaries of Trinidad, it can’t go in. So, it can’t go in, and it can’t transship. So, how are you getting it to the rest of the islands when we don’t have our own cargo operations in Guyana,” the Minister stressed.
Currently, the Twin Island Republic’s honey and bee products are guided by the country’s archaic Food and Drug Act of 1960 and the Beekeeping and Bee Products Act of 1935.
According to the Beekeeping and Bee Products Act, only honey from the Windward and Leeward Islands can be transshipped to the twin-island Republic – something which Guyana and Grenada have long been arguing goes against the Revised Treaty of Chaguaramas, which facilitates free trade and movement of goods and people within the region.
At Thursday’s event, the GCCI President said these practices cannot be allowed to continue.
“We continue to allow the free flow of goods from other Caribbean States into the country while our products are being barred from entry into some countries for negligible reasons, stymying our progress and development.
I echo our previous calls for the strong enforcement of common external tariffs and rules of origin… As a country, we cannot comfortably subscribe to the selective application of a free-trade framework in the region in a manner where our businesses do not benefit,” Hutson argued.
Time for reciprocity
Only earlier this month, Vice President Dr Bharrat Jagdeo had told business stakeholders that Guyana may have to impose its own restrictions in response to the continued regional trade barriers faced by local exporters.
“I said it’s time for reciprocity in many areas. If you don’t take our stuff, we’re not gonna allow free access [for] your products,” Jagdeo said at the Guyana Manufacturing and Services Association (GMSA) Annual Awards.
He was at the time responding to concerns raised by a local businessman, who complained about not being able to get his coconut products into the Trinidad market. According to the Vice President, some countries unfairly use phytosanitary restrictions.
For dry coconut, Trinidad requires this to be treated with methyl bromide – a substance that is banned in most territories.
“There is a phasing out of it. But for you to take certain items from Guyana into Trinidad, you’re required to treat them with methyl bromide – which you can’t get. The Government has to give you a special condition to buy it because it’s something that everybody signed up to get rid of. So, if you gotta carry dry coconut to another one of those countries, you gotta treat it with methyl bromide,” Indar noted at the GCCI event.
Moreover, local produce like peppers and fruits also encounter trade restrictions.
“If you have to take wiri pepper from Guyana to any one of those [countries] you got to break off all the stems – that introduces labour, time and carries up the cost so when it lands, it’s uncompetitive. If you got to take pineapple… to certain countries in the Caribbean, they tell you that you have to break off the [head]…but the minute you take the [head] off the top, it starts to rot… These [restrictions] were designed by folks who know about [these challenges but they do it] to make sure that there’re protectionist [measures for locals] in those countries,” the Minister stated.
Nevertheless, representatives from the customs, immigration and plant quarantine departments from Guyana, Barbados and Trinidad have worked out a common platform to normalise the process of trading these products freely via the ferry service without compromising public health, security, and safety.
“They have a normalised customs procedure and normalised immigration procedure because Barbados hosted the [Cricket] World Cup and a lot of their immigration procedures we used. And Guyana has the Guyana-Suriname ferry operation so we use that [procedure] and mimic it to have a [process for the] regional ferry. What we have to do now, we have to build the facilities – one at Parika and one in Barbados so that ships can come and dock because [they are] roll-on-roll-off, they are not side loaders… So that is where we are now with that ferry that will deal with trade barriers,” Minister Indar posited.
It was envisioned that the regional ferry service, in addition to being a cost-effective means of moving citizens of the three countries, will also play a critical role in CARICOM’s food security initiative – Twenty-Five by 2025 Initiative, which is to reduce the regional food bill by 25 per cent by the year 2025.
However, it was recently reported that the operationalisation of the ferry service is being delayed due to the high cost of a roll-on-roll-off vessel, which would be needed to transport both people and cargo between the three countries.
