Even as the coffee manufacturer, Amy’s Pomeroon Foods Inc (APFI) continues, along with other local agro-processors, to feel the economic squeeze associated with a weak domestic market, and latterly, the wider economic impact of the coronavirus pandemic, the company’s chief executive officer, Louis Holder, has outlined to this newspaper a series of measures which he believes can grow local businesses and “keep Guyanese employed and the economy resilient.”
At the top of Holder’s list of recommendations is the passage of legislation that sees the creation of a “Buy Guyanese Act,” which is “similar to the Buy American Act of 1933” that will allow for “government procurement funds” to be used “only to buy local goods and services,” once these are available.
The US Buy American Act applies to government agency purchases of goods valued over the “micro-purchase threshold” though it does not apply to services. Under the Act all goods for public use must be produced in the US, and manufactured items must be manufactured in the US from US materials. The Act creates a “price preference” that favours “domestic end products” from US firms.