The Georgetown Chamber of Commerce and Industry (GCCI) believes Guyana must review its place in CARICOM and decide whether it is beneficial to remain part of the block, and that the country should leverage the looming opportunities in the petroleum sector to secure better trade arrangements with sister States.
These positions were argued by GCCI Senior Vice President, Timothy Tucker, and former president and executive member, Deodat Indar during a press conference at the entity’s headquarters yesterday.
Highlighting various issues Guyana faces in its trade relationships with its sister CARICOM states, Tucker, who said that a substantial number of GCCI’s members share these sentiments, said “a lot of the issues that we have throughout the Caribbean, of course you will know as non-tariff barriers in the way that things are being traded in the Caribbean. It is always one-sided when it comes to Guyana,” adding that in the circumstances we need to “stop at this point in time to say is CARICOM really working? Is it doing what it is mandated to do…having a free and fair trade through the Caribbean? ”
He stressed that such considerations are especially warranted in light of the oil and gas era which Guyana is entering.
Specific issues
Tucker said that at the moment Trinidad is attempting to move the Council for Trade and Economic Development (COTED) to waive a 40 percent common external tariff (CET) against safety equipment originating outside of CARICOM. This move by Trinidad, he said, has prompted Guyanese business interests to apply for a similar waiver to ensure that local operators remain competitive.
He explained that Trinidad initially attempted to get safety equipment exempted from the CET by lumping them with unrelated equipment, but that current attempts are more forward.
“We sit in at the pre-COTED meetings….in the consultations last year there was a number of these same things being asked that CETs be removed from. They were bundled under household items, and when we sat at that meeting we discovered that there were household items and a number of things were…safety equipment. Now they are officially being asked to be taken off the list, not in the hidden way in which they were done last year, but now an official request to remove safety items”, Tucker said.
He also said that in the absence of local content legislation or policies, which Guyana lacks, “All of the offshore people, or oil and gas people, or even anybody that deals with safety equipment or buys safety equipment they will buy from Trinidad because…they are the only country in the Caribbean that has requested to have the 40% CET removed.”
In the circumstances, he said, it is important that Guyana applies for the same treatment, especially given that various taxes, including value-added taxes which already make imports uncompetitive.
Indar added that henceforth, “everything the Trinidad government asked for in terms of CET or any item whether it is manufactured goods or tradable goods, Guyana will be asking for likewise treatment, because if their cost is going to reduce, Guyanese cost have to reduce, because when we are going to bid, the tax element is a major aspect of the cost.”
While Tucker noted that Trinidad and Tobago recently lifted non-tariff barriers against pepper and pineapple, he noted that barriers remain against other items such as honey and pumpkin.
Indar pointed out that other goods suffer similar treatment. “Let’s talk about our cassava, let’s talk about our eddoes, and let’s talk about our plantain. We have farmers doing those too. Why didn’t they remove all? Why did they pick those three? There is generally technical barriers that exists…for governments in Trinidad and Barbados to…stifle our export market”, Indar argued.
Tucker also noted ongoing issues Guyana experiences in its bid to export coconut products. “…You have had situations where when Guyana was exporting a number of coconut products to Trinidad, they themselves shut that down”, he shared.
He also mentioned issues Guyana has experienced attempting to export chicken to Trinidad and Tobago. “I would have spoken the last time about the suspected (duck) hepatitis case in Guyana and then suddenly a ban on all poultry products coming from Guyana, Trinidad placed that”, Tucker said.
He added that there were similar issues exporting chicken to Jamaica.
“When Guyana would have been approved to export poultry products throughout the Caribbean we had even Jamaica…I think it was their chief veterinary officer, who cited the lack of traceability for the water. So because our poultry farming is done on the highway, and they use creek water and not municipal well water, that was a problem”, Tucker told the media.
Tucker said that these realities are the main reasons why “we are checking to see if CARICOM is still relevant in the terms of trade negotiations throughout the Caribbean” adding that “it makes you wonder when you look at the amount of hurdles and barriers that the Guyanese business community have to overcome to trade on a fair level in the Caribbean”.
Moving goal posts
In addition to the existing issues, Tucker said that additional issues are arising because States are continuously trying to impose new standards which will make things more difficult for local producers.
“…Now you look at COTED, you see they are looking at front labeling after most of our manufacturers would have gone forward and got up to the standard, now you have some things raised by some of the Caribbean nations trying to…move the goal post again, so to speak” Tucker lamented.
Drawing the line and leveraging opportunities from oil
Tucker said that the issues constantly encountered by Guyanese traders prompted a push for leveraging oil opportunities available in and around Guyana for fairer trade arrangements.
“That is why the chamber objected a year ago to the MOU being signed without the non-tariff barriers being removed for Trinidad…We have had a better trade relationship with Jamaica than anybody else in CARICOM at the moment. If you look at our exports you will see Jamaica as a line item. We cannot say the same for any other CARICOM territories.”
In its September 19, 2018 issue, Stabroek News reported that Guyana and Trinidad signed a Memorandum of Understanding on Energy Sector Cooperation.
“Guyana’s oil should be used, and we dropped the ball by signing the MOU before having gotten those things. It was a blunder”, Tucker said.
