With successive political administrations in Guyana having made several failed attempts at improving the country’s trading links with the rest of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM), the present government is reportedly having yet another try at improving trading links with the region, according to a March 27 Caribbean Business Report story which hints at the likelihood of yet another attempt to do so.
The latest initiative which the Report says comes on the back of concerns expressed by President Irfaan Ali late last year about issues affecting intra-regional trade, asserts that the PPP/C administration will be seeking to make strides towards removing barriers affecting intra-regional trade in collaboration with the country’s private sector.
There has been region-wide concern over what is felt to be the ineffectiveness of the Caribbean Single Market and Economy (CSME) which, in theory at least, allows for the free intra-regional movement of goods and services across the member countries of CARICOM.
Over time, major differences have arisen between Guyana and Trinidad and Tobago over Guyanese exports to the twin-island republic. Back in September 2019 “technical experts” from Guyana, and Trinidad and Tobago, sat down in Port-of-Spain to discuss issues relating to the importation of agricultural produce from Guyana into Trinidad and Tobago in the wake of numerous reports of Guyanese exporters facing difficulties when targeting markets in the twin-island Republic.
A report emanating from that meeting disclosed that the two sides had discussed challenges which Guyanese exporters had been experiencing in their efforts to get clearance from the authorities in Port of Spain. That engagement reportedly extended into discussions regarding the prohibition of the trans-shipment through Trinidad and Tobago of honey produced in Guyana and bound for other Caribbean territories as well as a reported ban on the importation into Trinidad and Tobago of poultry meat from Guyana. Whether the two countries eventually arrived at an understanding on these issues is unclear.
Speaking on the outcome of the recent encounter with Port of Spain, one-time holder of the ministerial portfolios for Agriculture and Natural Resources, Robert Persaud, who was appointed to the position of Foreign Secretary after the PPP/C returned to office in August last year, is quoted by Caribbean Business Report as saying that during the two meetings held by the committee set up to address the broader issue of intra-regional trade issues, barriers were pinpointed “product by product and country by country and suggestions raised with regard to how these could be settled” and that “work has been making some progress in the sense that we were able to engage a number of countries bilaterally and we will continue to do that.” Persaud is also reported to have said that Guyana had already received responses from Barbados but that there is some sloth on the part of Trinidad. “We have seen some significant interest in having these issues addressed by other states and we hope that Trinidad and Tobago would itself address and correct that very soon, all in the spirit of regional integration,” Persaud reportedly added.
The Foreign Secretary, according to the Caribbean Business Report, identified poultry as one of the commodities from Guyana banned from importation into Trinidad and Tobago, a circumstance which Persaud is quoted as saying was the result of a virus detected in ducks originating in neighbouring Suriname.
