After several months of delays, Government has decided to reopen the scrap metal trade next month on a limited basis to facilitate the clearance of some of the accumulated scrap metal across the country.
While a date for the resumption of the trade has not been announced, Business Minister Dominic Gaskin told this media group on Monday that the date depends on several important factors.
The Minister disclosed that a meeting was held with exporters and dealers a few weeks ago to introduce them to a new system that the Business Ministry is trying to implement.
According to him, it is a software system that was specially designed to help the Ministry to monitor and regulate the trade once it resumes, creating a level playing field for all.
“We’ve met with them, we’ve discussed it with them and we have arranged some training sessions for them to familiarize themselves with how the system will work and we are looking to do a little resumption starting next month. I can’t give you an exact date because it depends on a lot of things,” he explained.
Gaskin said with the resumption of the trade, it will give the Ministry the opportunity to test the system to ensure that its working and also that it will help to clear some of the accumulated scrap metal that has been legitimately acquired from some of the exporters or dealers yards.
Government had approved a restart of the scrap metal trade in Guyana during February 2017 after closing down the industry one year prior to that. The main reason for this, was to allow exporters, to ship out the existing stock for a limited period of three months, and ensure that there is no pile up of these materials.
Meanwhile, on another issue, Gaskin said that his Ministry is trying to determine the legitimacy of the newly formed Guyana Metal Dealers and General Exporters Association (GMD&GEA). The Association has since took the Government to task for the continued ban on the scrap metal trade.
According to Gaskin however, Government recognizes the GMRA and they are still trying to understand who the new association really represents, and whether there is some conflict between the two groupings.
“I am just trying to find out who the body is before I engage them because I don’t want to enter any discussion with a body that represents the industry and then find out that it is not so or represent the members. I really need to get a better sense of who they are and who their members are,” he added.
Gaskin said that until such time that it is sorted out Government will continue to recognize the GMRA only. (Samuel Sukhnandan)
