Guyana and Jamaica have reached a deal that grants the island a waiver of the Common External Tariff (CET) on 9,000 tonnes of rice en route from the US and provides a guaranteed market for 60,000 tonnes of this country’s rice per annum.
The deal came following a meeting between President Bharrat Jadgeo and Jamaica’s Prime Minister Bruce Golding earlier this week. Agriculture Minister, Robert Persaud, confirmed the reports of the deal which were carried in yesterday’s editions of the Jamaica Gleaner and Jamaica Observer. He emphasized that the 60, 000 tonnes to be imported by Jamaica each year from Guyana is the highest in this country’s history to be imported by Kingston per year.
Minister Persaud told Stabroek News that a compromise had been reached during the meeting with the two leaders, who met after the issue was raised during the 26th Council for Trade and Economic Development (COTED) meeting in Antigua and Barbuda last weekend.
The Agriculture Minister said that Jamaica had initially requested a waiver on 24,000 tonnes of rice. He noted that Guyana can only supply 60,000 tonnes of rice per year to the island. The minister added that a draft agreement was signed while the final document is being completed.
The two newspapers had reported that the country’s Ministry of Industry and Commerce, Karl Samuda had made the announcement about the deal in Jamaica’s Parliament on Tuesday. According to the reports, Guyana has agreed not to oppose Jamaica’s application for the suspension of the CET on 9,000 tonnes of rice already on its way to the island from the United States.
The issue of Guyana’s ability to supply Jamaica with the commodity and the island’s need for a stock of rice had been discussed at the recently concluded COTED meeting. Jamaica had requested a suspension of the CET to import rice from extra-regional sources, but Guyana had indicated that it could supply Jamaica’s demand for the commodity.
Fellow Caribbean Community (CARICOM) member, Suriname had said at the weekend meeting that it would have supported Jamaica’s push for a waiver of the 25% CET that would clear the way for the island to buy rice outside the region, but only if the Golding/Jagdeo meeting failed to reach compromise.
According to the Gleaner, speaking in parliament on Tuesday, Samuda said an agreement had been reached between the two country leaders, but that Jagdeo had conditions. “Following those discussions, I had a discussion later with President Jagdeo who advised us that he would not oppose our application for a suspension of 9,000 tonnes, which are on the way and due to arrive on May 20,” the paper quoted Samuda as saying. “We would, in turn, give an assurance that … out of the 100,000 tonnes required by the country, we would give a guarantee to purchase from Guyana 60,000 tonnes per annum and on that basis, he (President Jadgeo) would not object,” Samuda further said adding that “he (Jagdeo) further indicated that he gave his undertaking that within two weeks, Jamaica would be supplied with 14,000 tonnes of rice from Guyana, in addition to the nearly 3,000 tonnes that are now on its way to Jamaica.” The Observer report said that the Jamaican Government had warned that it would have overridden Guyanese resistance to the request for the suspension of the CET on rice imports from the US, in order to guarantee supplies. The paper reported that Samuda had said that Jamaican importers have lost faith in the ability of Guyana’s distributors to meet that country’s rice needs. Guyana has maintained that it had the ability to supply its rice commitments to Jamaica.
