President Bharrat Jagdeo has called on the Caricom Secre-tariat to pay close attention to what is happening as it relates to the ability of Trinidad Cement Limited (TCL) to supply cement to countries in the region, especially in the light of ongoing concerns about the Common External Tariff (CET) imposed on cement.
At a press conference on Thursday, Jagdeo said, “I gather that whilst TCL is representing that it can supply our market, it is supporting the waiver to import cement in another market in the same region.”
Speaking about the local situation, Jagdeo said “I was told at Cabinet recently, that some local companies were stalled because they couldn’t find cement and it was some lumpy cement that they had somewhere”. While admitting that he had not checked on these matters personally, Jagdeo said he trusted the sources of this information.
At the time, Jagdeo was responding to a question asked regarding whether there had been any solution to the issue surrounding TCL and the CET. While saying that no solution had been reached as yet, he disclosed that the matter will come up for discussion at an upcoming meeting of the Council for Trade and Economic Development (COTED) and the Heads of Government meeting.
The President said that the matter had previously been addressed by the Heads of Government. Jagdeo said “we have argued that the …CET should be removed from cement, based on an earlier decision of Heads, that all internationally competitive goods, should not be protected by the CET and oil and cement were listed as two, so we’re are hoping that that would happen.”
Jagdeo said that TCL wanted to maintain a position of monopoly but that they could not supply the demands. However, the Head of State stressed that the country’s capital programme will not be jeopardized.
The President said that the government has committed to construct about 450 community roads during the latter part of this year and next year. The Head of State identified upgrading and paving of the East and West Canje roads, as well as the extension of the four-way highway from Providence to Diamond, as some of the major projects. He said for these projects a large supply of cement and aggregate will be needed. He also pointed out that a US$30 million sea defence programme is set to commence next month, which will also require cement.
“We can’t jeopardize our industry and progress here because some company wants to corner our market,” Jagdeo said. “And this is precisely what they [TCL] are doing and more so, since they built their facility, the bagging plant on state land and we are not getting rentals for the thing too – we have a dispute, it’s a big irony,” he added.
TCL and TCL Guyana Inc (TGI) had accused the Guyana government of breaching the Revised Treaty of Chaguara-mas by unilaterally suspending the CET on cement imported from countries outside Caricom and was later granted leave to sue the government after approaching the Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ). The court in its ruling on August 20, 2009 held the view that TCL and TGI are entitled to the benefit of having the CET maintained.
The CCJ later ruled that Guyana restore the tariff within 28 days, stating that without the coercive order there would be grave consequences for the rule of law in the single market – a directive which Attorney General Charles Ramson said suggests that the court had assumed powers akin to that of sovereign states.
