In relatively recent years—at least as far as we know—a range of our food exports have been used as conduits for the movement of illicit drugs to export markets, a practice that has begun to negatively affect the country’s reputation as a legitimate exporter.
This is not the first time that this newspaper has pronounced on the subject of the concealment of illicit drugs in what would otherwise be legitimate exports and as we reported some months ago the practice has become so commonplace and so well-known to the international business community that many importers of Guyanese products in other countries have become wary of doing business with us. The matter came up at a meeting between a Canadian business contingent and local officials, including a senior Guyana Revenue Authority official. The point about the prospect of increasing local exports to Canada became caught up in a prickly discussion as to whether, given the preponderance of drug-smuggling the customarily attending the export trade, it is worth the while to deepen ties with local exporters.
More recently, it came to our attention that a North American-based shipping company that sends cargo to Guyana has declared that at least for the foreseeable future it intends to steer clear of moving consignments of goods out of Guyana. Airlines too are said to be pretty finicky about moving cargo out of Guyana. To say that this is not the kind of reputation that does the wider image of the country any good is to indulge in considerable understatement.
Discourses about the use of export commodities as conduits for drug-trafficking are taking place simultaneously with other discourses that have to do with how to make local produce more export-ready. These include issues like how to surmount the mountains of non-tariff barriers to exporting to the US, foods manufactured in other countries. Of particular concern are those barriers associated with safety and health standards in receiving countries and how to boost labelling and packaging standards to ensure that local products are more appealing to export markets. Is crystal clear though that the two sets of pursuits are working altogether at cross purposes.
As one of the country’s fruit and vegetable exporters told Stabroek Business earlier this week the proliferation of the practice of concealing cocaine in export commodities has cast a dark shadow over much of the business community. The exporter lamented that these days, “even the export of a few bundles of bora has come under suspicion.”
So that the question arises as to whether the stakeholders—the private sector producers, the private sector business support organizations and the state-run support entities—do not, themselves, have a vested interest in strengthening the security mechanisms that can help to suppress the proliferation of the use of export commodities as ‘mules’ in the drug trade. Arising out of that the question is whether enough has been done to staunch the practice so that the image of the export sector can be repaired and legitimate exports increased with due haste.
Up until now there is no hard evidence that either individually or collectively (ideally collectively) the public and private sectors, including the police, the business support organizations and the mainstream businesses themselves have been demonstrating any real commitment to tackling this problem. Here again it has been suggested, unfortunately by a member of the mainstream business community that “cocaine is police business, not our business,” which is, of course, an altogether misguided pronouncement since the growing frequency of some of the methods used to export the illegal drug means we are approaching a point where every package, every export consignment leaving Guyana will probably come under scrupulous examination by the Customs authorities here, but more importantly will come under much suspicion in the receiving countries.
This, of course, is not to say that curbing the practice will prove easy. The unfolding evidence suggests that the practice of masking the export of drugs from Guyana is being undertaken using increasingly creative and ingenious approaches and what is required—beyond what appears to be, for the most part, a hit or miss arrangement that may or may not nab a consignment from one time to the next—is a more studied and structured approach that may well necessitate external assistance. Whatever it takes, it is pointless for the legitimate business community to continue to break its back to increase legitimate exports only to watch their efforts undermined by importers who believe that every consignment of goods imported from Guyana may have drug trafficking written all it.
