Caricom appears powerless to save rice from cheap imports - industry rep
By Andre Haynes
Stabroek News
May 3, 2004
Caricom needs to get tough on member states who are not observing their obligations to the Rice Monitoring Mechan-ism at the expense of the industry, says Caribbean Rice Association (CRA) Chairman and rice miller Beni Sankar.
"If the monitoring mechanism does not work - no matter how much money they put in the industry - it will die," says Sankar, who notes that after two years of diplomatic jargon the Council for Trade and Economic Development (COTED) needs to do more than "note" and "urge" member states who are not playing by the rules.
He thinks that the delinquent states which are putting national interests before the region have made COTED ineffective and are also jeopardising the security of the industry in the region, which is facing unfair competition from heavily-subsidisd extra-regional imports.
The Rice Monitoring Mechanism was passed two years ago at the 13th COTED meeting. It obligates member states to provide production, export and import data every six months to the Secretariat, which will collate and analyse the information and feed it back to the participating states and COTED to inform policy decisions. But not all member states have been compliant during the last two years, particularly Trinidad and Tobago, Jamaica and St Vincent and the Grenadines, which are responsible for a significant amount for the extra- regional and subsidised rice imports.
At the last COTED Meeting in Belize the report on the Monitoring Mechan-ism says that COTED has noted that member countries have not provided the information required. COTED also further urged that member states submit the data for the next COTED meeting.
It is this passive stance which has been the trend for the last two years that has led Sankar to suggest that Guyana may be better off forgetting Caricom and looking to exploit markets in South America. He notes that the European market is troubled, and Brazil and Venezuela remain market options.
But Minister of Foreign Trade Cle-ment Rohee disagrees with the notion that COTED is a waste of time, though he also admits there is some deception among the delinquent Member States.
"At the last meeting when the matter was raised I made the point that I suspected that there is a tremendous amount of skulduggery taking place between some member states and that is precisely why they are not forthcoming with the data as obligated by COTED," Rohee told Stabroek News.
He also disclosed that Secretary-General Edwin Carrington at the last meeting assumed responsibility for going after the delinquent member states to get them to provide the data within a specific time frame.
At the start of the year Sankar wrote to the Secretariat to ventilate his concerns. Carrington, who responded in a letter through Rohee, admits the Secretariat can only do its part if it receives the data from member states.
"...The Caricom Secretariat shares the frustration and concerns of the stakeholders in Guyana at the pace of the implementation of the Regional Monitoring Mechanism for Rice," Carrington says in the letter dated February 4, 2004 which was obtained by Stabroek News.
"You will recall that the Secretariat informed the COTED in mid-2003 that the flow, quality and comprehensiveness of data was not of a nature as to allow for meaningful analysis and reporting," Carrington also says.
He explains that pursuant to discussions at COTED the Secretariat not only reminded member states of their responsibility to report but also provided a format for the reports.
Evidence of interaction between the Secretariat and member states
was also provided by Carrington in the form of a letter from the Secretariat to ADRON, the reporting agency for Suriname.
The letter, dated September 11, 2003, was in response to Suriname's submissions for the monitoring mechanism, advising that the manner in which the data under rice production and quantity exported is presented does not allow for easy analysis as is provided by the Secretariat's format.
Sankar is still critical of the pace at which COTED is working since the same initiatives which were first discussed almost two years ago are still being considered now; initiatives such as a financing conference that was proposed after the European Union pledged $24M Euros to make the industry more competitive.
He explained that after the pledge was made the Secretariat advised that a financing conference be held since it was recognised that the industry needs a bigger capital injection. The conference was supposed to be organised by the CRA, CARIFORUM and the Secretariat which was responsible for identifying a consultant for a study to look at additional finances. No consultant has been identified and the conference is yet to get underway.
Nevertheless, Sankar thinks any investment in the industry now is in vain if member states do not fulfil their commitments. He explains that the EU wants to make the industry competitive to survive after trade arrangements are done away with under WTO rules. But until the industry is sufficiently developed the only safeguard remains the Common External Tariff (CET) on extra-regional imports.
"It will have to go eventually... but if there is fair play our industry can compete against them without the subsidies... But the irony is that if we can't carry on up to that point we are going to die... If we are not protected against subsidised rice we will not go forward."
It is in this context in which he views the importance of the Rice Monitoring Mechanism.
"If they can't get it done... if there is no recourse against these delinquent [states]... why should anyone put money in the industry... there's no protection..."
"At this point no one can tell me what next... But come the 17th COTED it will be the same story again."
Meanwhile, though an official notice has not been issued as yet the Secretariat has indicated that a tentative date is fixed for the 17th Meeting of COTED. Agriculture issues are expected to dominate the meetings and the CRA has been asked to prepare a presentation on "Strategies and Issues Pertinent to the Major Commodities and their Impact on the Growth of the Agricultural Sector."