A team from the Agriculture Ministry is set to travel to Trinidad and Tobago next week to meet with their counterparts to discuss non-tariff trade barriers between the two countries.
Minister of Agriculture Dr Leslie Ramsammy said the meetings form part of the recent agreements sealed between Guyana and Trinidad and Tobago which the twin-island republic agreed to host to address the uneven relationship in trade.
“Guyana has expressed our discomfort with the fact that whilst we allow products from Trinidad and Barbados and other countries to freely enter into Guyana, that we believe that there are unfair barriers that exist in other countries,” he said, according to a report from the Government Information Agency (GINA).
Earlier this year, the two countries signed an agreement that will allow investors from Trinidad and Tobago to engage in large-scale farming in Guyana, and both countries engaging in more economic activities.
Dr Ramsammy also said that the ministry is pursuing another collaborative venture aimed at developing the local coconut industry, but this time it is partnering with the Inter-American Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture (IICA) which has brought on board the Mexican Government. This venture will focus on improving the agronomic, agro-processing and marketing aspects of the industry.
IICA will provide the funding for a focal point team to start a two-month visit in January 2014 to Mexico for training in various aspects of the coconut industry. Mexico has a very successful industry with high yields, according to GINA.
“The Mexican coconut industry is not unlike the Indian coconut or the coconut industry in Asia where every part of the coconut is used to produce valued-added [products] and Guyana is trying to ensure that our coconut industry produces the best high yielding coconut, and also every part of the coconut is utilised in valued added product,” Dr Ramsammy said.
