Negotiators squeezed 'maximum' out of Beal - US attorney By Gitanjali Singh Stabroek News May 18, 2000 The provisions of the proposed Beal deal were the "absolute maximum" the government could get out of that company, US attorney Paul Reichler contends. But whether the proposed deal was in the best interest of Guyana was for Guyanese to decide, he added. Reichler, a government-retained lawyer/lobbyist is also lobbyist for Beal Aerospace Technologies at the US State Department and facilitator to the negotiations between the government and Beal. "If the government negotiators had pushed any more, they would not have gotten a deal," Reichler told Stabroek News on Tuesday. He explained that officials of Beal had said to him that should the terms of the deal change, it would be more feasible for them to launch satellites out of Cape Canaveral in the US. Beal had already walked from St Croix in the US Virgin Islands in favour of assembling its satellite vehicles at Cape Canaveral. Asked whether he felt the proposed deal would be good for Guyana, Reichler said it was awkward for him to evaluate the agreement in public but he was confident that the government negotiators did all they could to squeeze the maximum out of Beal. For Reichler, the best way to assess whether the country was getting a good deal was to assess the alternative economic uses for the land being given up as well as the price being offered by anyone else for use of the said land. However, he did not know whether the government had worked out what alternative uses of the land could yield to the country. He said that the government determined public policy and in its negotiations with Beal was guided by wanting to send the right signal to investors about Guyana being a place for investment, including high tech investment. Reichler said that all he could do, given the government's defined policy, was make sure that the deal was in the country's best interest. He opined that the government, having made the policy decision as to the kind of investment it wanted to attract and the suitability of the site, had made an excellent choice. Reichler said he felt that a deal with Beal was what was needed to jump start the economy as it would show tremendous confidence in Guyana on the part of a foreign investor. Reichler cited Costa Rica which has been able to garner a tremendous amount of high tech investment with other countries jumping on the bandwagon to attract similar business. The lawyer said that the government saw a deal with Beal as being able to provide tremendous opportunity for it to attract such high tech investment and as a flagship for additional foreign investment. In terms of the reasonableness of the recurrent revenue the country could expect from the deal and the sale of the land, Reichler said these were issues he did not get involved in, but knew if the government pushed any more, Beal would have walked from the negotiations. Reichler said he was not called upon to facilitate in the issue of selling land to Beal either. Beal will pay the government US$3 per acre for 25,010 acres of land and pay US$1 per acre for easement on a further 76,000 acres. The company will also enjoy a 99-year tax holiday and will only get a small portion of revenue from successful launches, which might not number many in the first few years of operation. The government will also get US$100,000 for administrative expenditure pursuant to the deal. In a good year with about a dozen launches, the government's recurrent revenue is projected as US$775,000. Reichler feels the deal with Beal could be a big shot in the arm for Guyana in its effort to attract high tech investment which would in turn create a few thousand jobs.