Minister of Fisheries, Crops and Livestock and acting Minister of Agriculture, Satyadeow Sawh, who returned from the recently held Council for Trade and Economic Development (COTED) in Trinidad, told reporters Friday that indications were that Trinidad and Tobago would soon start buying Guyanese chickens.

The COTED meeting, attended by Agriculture Ministers of the region, addressed the importation of poultry products from extra-regional sources and agreed on a mechanism to resolve the issue.

Guyana's poultry industry has been certified by U.S. authorities as having met the required sanitary and other standards. In addition, said Minister Sawh, Guyana is currently exporting beef to one CARICOM country.

Another contentious issue, Mr. Sawh said, was the claim by neighbouring Suriname that logs imported from that country are attracting a tax here, which ought not to be.

Ms. Rajdai Jaggerauth of the Ministry of Foreign Trade and International Cooperation said Suriname also claimed that the logs imported into Guyana are re-exported, and the Surinamese are contending that this is unfair competition. However, she said Suriname has been requested to produce evidence of their re-exporting claims.

With regards to the tax on the imported logs, Ms. Jaggernauth said Suriname is asking that legislation be implemented to remove the tax.

As regards the rice industry the issue of rice from extra-regional sources entering the regional market without paying the Common External Tariff (CET) was discussed, according to Cecil Seepersaud of the Ministry of Foreign Trade and International Cooperation. It was observed that many countries were not complying with the monitoring mechanism established to deal with this matter. Nevertheless, he reported that of recent there has been improvement in this respect.

Mr. Seepersaud indicated that efforts are being made to plug loopholes that exist within the instruments of the monitoring mechanism, while imposing penalties for non-compliance is under active consideration.

He disclosed, too, that another area of concern that was discussed at the COTED meeting was the non-implementation of the rice standards agreed to earlier by CARICOM member states.

Up to May of this year only four countries had complied with the established rice standards, Mr. Seepersaud reported.

Touching on the region's sugar industry, Mr. Seepersaud noted that Guyana has been the only country to have "pulled through" amidst the difficulties being created as a result of the eventual end to preferential markets.

As the situation is evolving, he said, some countries are moving in the direction of producing sugar cane rather than sugar, while some like Jamaica are going into ethanol production.

Establishing sugar refineries is another option that could be resorted, he noted.

Ms. Jaggernauth reported that another important issue discussed at the meeting in T & T was the importance of the Caribbean ports meeting the security standards as laid out by the International Ships & Port Facility Code (ISPFC)

She stressed that not meeting the requirements would preclude ships from Caribbean ports entering the U.S., and further noted that U.S. authorities are insisting that the July 1 deadline for meeting the requirements would not be revised.

Governments, port authorities, and shipping companies may find that their facilities and vessels are subjected to punitive measures by distant ports of call or authorities such as the U.S. Coast Guard.

This can dramatically affect the traditional cargo shipping routes in the Caribbean where ships service several ports prior to heading for distant terminals.

Cargo, including full and empty containers, will be subject to additional new codes, soon to be brought into place.