By Jomo Paul
[www.inewsguyana.com] – The Government of Guyana is planning to negotiate with two regional companies to arrive at an agreement to pay a smaller amount of money than was ordered by the Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ) in two separate court rulings.
According to Minister of State Joseph Harmon, the government is fully cognizant of its responsibility and will honour its debts to Rudisa Beverages and Trinidad Cement Limited.
In the rulings, the then government was ordered to pay the Rudisa Beverages GYD$1.2B and TCL close to GYD$57M.
Rudisa, a Suriname based company, produces and sells beverages in non-returnable containers. Caribbean International Distributors Inc. (CIDI) had alleged that the imposition by Guyana in 1995, of an environmental levy or tax of $10 on all imported non-returnable beverage containers imported into Guyana, was discriminatory and amounted to a violation of the Revised Treaty of Chaguaramas (RTC) passed into Guyana law in 2006.
TCL claimed losses due to the Guyana government’s unilateral waiver of a 15% Common External Tariff (CET) on cement imports, be dealt with in accordance with Article 222 of the Revised Treaty of Chaguaramas and Part 10 of the Caribbean Court of Justice (Original Jurisdiction) Rules of 2006.
“These sums of monies are due to be paid to the companies and cabinet has taken the position that it will honour these commitments… in the spirit of accepting this responsibility cabinet has advised he Minister to negotiate companies for smaller sum as a final settlement in these matters,” the Harmon stated.
