The Caribbean Community (CARICOM) on Wednesday wrapped up its 33rd Inter-Sessional Meeting, and among the outcomes was a decision taken to review the level of local content that Member States should implement as well as the length of time it should be valid for.
This was revealed by Prime Minister of Barbados, Mia Mottley, at a press conference following the two-day Inter-Sessional Meeting amongst CARICOM Heads of State in Belize.
Back in January, the Caribbean Private Sector Organisation (CPSO) had raised concerns with Guyana’s Local Content Act passed in December.
According to Mottley, this issue was raised within the context of the CARICOM Single Market and Economy (CSME) initiative, and a decision was taken to look into it.
“We placed before Heads and Heads accepted that there is need for us to review the issue of local content and there is an open-ended committee of Member States that will start to work very shortly, recognising in new areas of economic activity what we call ‘sunrise industries’,” she expressed.
“They may well be and I certainly support that, there is case for some level of local content and the issue will be what should that percentage of local content be and what is the time it should be valid for, because if you’re giving it to a sunrise industry, then they don’t need 30 years from now or 20 years from now,” she added.
The Barbadian Prime Minister noted that once these discussions are had, they will be in a better position to make recommendations to the full Conference of Heads of Government.
“So, we’re going to do the discussions among ourselves with the view towards recommending to the full Conference of Heads, what the appropriate framework should be such that no one will be held reach per wanting to do that which is most natural that if we accept that we share the burden and hard times then we must share the bounty and good times too and that is all that we understand, Guyana and other countries that want to introduce local content in emerging industries are seeking to do,” Mottley stated.
In a leaked email, CPSO contended that Guyana’s Local Content law, which makes provisions for Guyanese persons and Guyanese-owned businesses to benefit from the oil and gas sector at specified percentages, violates certain provisions of the Caricom Treaty, which give birth to the CSME.
However, this sparked widespread criticism from the Guyanese private sector which pointed out that some Caribbean countries were allowed to implement their own local content policies without any pushback.
Moreover, some private sector players also questioned the legitimacy of the CPSO and even called on CARICOM to intervene.
