(Trinidad Express) A trade quarrel over toilet paper between Trinidad and Tobago and Jamaica is heading to Caricom for a solution. Speaking to the Express yesterday, Trade Desk Officer of the T&T-Jamaica Trade Facilitation Desk at the Trinidad and Tobago Manufacturers’ Association(TTMA), Naika Pichi-Ayers, said TTL, one of their members, had contacted them in early March to resolve their concerns that Jamaican authorities were not allowing their products entry into the market.
She said TTL alleged that they were not informed by the Jamaican Bureau of Standards (JBOS) about the embargo, and were therefore not allowed to ensure that they were up to the required quality standards. She added that the microbial testing on the toilet paper was not actually part of the requirement for Caricom trade agreements.
The blocked shipments were then left sitting on Jamaican ports for months. Pichi-Ayers said T&T Bureau of Standards and the manufacturer wanted to know what level of bacteria was present on the contaminated toilet paper. She added that TTL had sent its own samples to independent testing labs in the US for examination. In February, it was reported in Jamaican media that gynaecologists were seeing higher level of vaginal infections in patients. The culprit was narrowed down to inferior toilet paper (likely made from recycled paper) and samples of toilet tissue products were sent to the JBOS for testing.
The Jamaica Observer reported on Tuesday that a total of ten shipments have since been detained, of which three tested positive for high bacterial load which will result in the importer being asked to either re-export or destroy the product. The JBOS this week released an approved “safe-list” of tissue products. On that list were three Trinidad-produced brands, Petal, and So Soft and Soft ‘n’ Pretty—which are produced by TTL.
Even though their brands have now been cleared, Pichi-Ayers said the damage to their reputation has already been done because the Jamaican media had “blown it out of proportion”, alleging that inferior products (from Trinidad) were being dumped on the Jamaican market.
