Guyana protests Trinidad request for sugar tariff waiver
Stabroek News
February 12, 2003
The Guyana government has objected to a request by Trinidad and Tobago for CARICOM to approve a certificate allowing refined sugar to be imported duty free from outside the region.
Minister of Foreign Trade and International Co-operation Clement Rohee has said that the imported sugar is used in products which then qualify for Area Origin Treatment when exported to CARICOM countries. Trinidad's request was made at the 14th meeting of the Council on Trade and Economic Development (COTED) held at Le Meridien Pegasus earlier this month.
Speaking to reporters on Monday afternoon Rohee said representatives of the Trinidad and Tobago government had informed COTED that the Caroni refinery was being affected from time to time by strikes. In order to ensure the availability of sugar for local manufacturers Trinidad and Tobago proposed to import 14,000 tonnes of refined sugar from outside the region during the period February 1, 2003 to December 31, 2003.
Rohee said Guyana had objected given that GUYSUCO was currently supplying bulk raw sugar to the Trinidad refinery shipping 12,000 tonnes during August to December of 2002 and another 3,000 on February 7.
He said Caroni had advised GUYSUCO that it had sufficient supplies in stock and would only need imports in the second half of the year.
Rohee recalled that in discussions late last year Caroni had indicated that it would require 21,000 tonnes bulk sugar from the region for its refinery and that Guyana and Belize were in a position to supply this amount.
But while Trinidad and Tobago has accepted the commitment by Caroni to import raw sugar from Guyana and Belize for refining this year, it has stated its need to provide for circumstances in which the refinery could be shut down at short notice by industrial action.
