According to Minister of Foreign Trade and International Cooperation, Clement Rohee, Guyana is seeking an end to the duty-free importation of paddy into CARICOM from extra-regional sources (in Jamaica's case from the United States).

He said that such imports conflict with regional arrangements and undermine potential market opportunities for exporters of rice within CARICOM.

At the 14th Meeting of the Council for Trade and Economic Development (COTED), held recently in Georgetown, CARICOM Secretary General, Edwin Carrington reported that the matter remains unresolved and efforts will be pursued to end the dispute by the next COTED meeting in May this year.

Rohee, at a recent press conference, explained that the dispute developed when paddy was mysteriously removed from the list of ineligible commodities that can be imported from outside the region in the late 1990s. Consequently, Jamaica proceeded to set up its own rice mills to process imported paddy from the U.S.

However, local businessman and rice exporter, Mr. Robert Badal is contending that the agreement between the governments of Guyana and Jamaica, signed in Trinidad and Tobago earlier this month, "amounts to the virtual closure" of the Jamaican market to Guyanese rice.

Badal charged that despite advice from the local rice industry and a number of discussions at COTED at which Guyana's position was that Jamaica cannot waive the Common External Tariff (CET) on highly subsidised rice from the U.S., "it is a total surprise to learn of the agreement permitting Jamaica to import 65,000 tonnes of paddy rice duty-free per annum until December 21, 2010."

Badal added that the Jamaican government granted licences for duty-free imports of paddy to two companies in Jamaica at the time when Guyana protested this as being unlawful under CARICOM agreements and that none of these companies had the capacity to mill paddy.

He further stated that the Jamaican Government had the opportunity to withdraw the licences if it had the will, rather than allowing (them) to be used for the importation of highly subsidised paddy by a U.S. multinational.

"This brings into question Jamaica's commitment to CARICOM and its hypocrisy in statements on CARICOM Single Market and Economy. Only two years ago, the Jamaican government levied 180% on imports of U.S. chicken, claiming that the U.S. chicken is highly subsidised.

"Recently also, an 86% tariff was imposed on Thai cement on the grounds that the Thai cement amounts to dumping. Why then grant a licence for highly subsidised rice from the U.S. that adversely affects the main product of another member state - Guyana?" Badal queried.

He also questioned the intention of the Government of Guyana in concluding such an agreement that will have disastrous effects on the local rice industry.

Apart from the Jamaican rice issue, Guyana was able to get COTED to agree to several of its proposals pertaining to the industry within CARICOM.

Guyana had proposed a Revised Regional Standard for Rice because several territories within CARICOM were objecting to the importation of its rice, citing colour and size of grain, among other specifications relating to standards, as reasons for not buying rice from here, Rohee said.

The Regional Rice Standard was adopted at the 13th meeting of COTED in May 2002.

However, final amendments to the specifications were agreed at the 14th COTED conference. Member states were requested to ensure the amendments are reflected in their national legislation and that the standard is implemented as a mandatory commitment for all CARICOM countries.

The proposals by Guyana for the establishment of a Regional Monitoring Mechanism and a Regional Safeguard Mechanism were also agreed to in principle at the 14th COTED meeting, Rohee reported.

The former was proposed in a move to ensure that the rice trade within CARICOM is conducted in a fair, transparent and equitable manner, while the latter sought to protect the region's rice industry from the volatility of world market rice prices.

All member states agreed with the principle of the Regional Safeguard Mechanism. However, some countries expressed concerns about its technical workings and this prevented it from being adopted at the 14th COTED meeting.