More flexibility in administration of CET - Dr. Luncheon

More flexibility in administration of CET – Dr. Luncheon

May 02, 2014 News

Participating states of the Caribbean Community will now enjoy greater flexibility in the administration of the Common External Tariff (CET).
This was related by Dr. Roger Luncheon, Head of the Presidential Secretariat, during his weekly post-Cabinet press briefing, on Wednesday.
“The ruling of the CCJ (Caribbean Court of Justice) in the celebrated case involving Trinidad Cement Limited (TCL) led to formal efforts by the community to address the deficiencies in the treaty…You might recall that in constituting the CCJ specific responsibilities were entrusted on the CCJ to deal with issues arising from the interpretation of the Regional Treaty of Chaguaramas,” he said.
Common External Tariff is a customs union created by a group of countries to foster economic integration. The group enjoys similar customs duties, import quotas, preferences or other non-tariff barriers to trade apply to all goods entering the area, regardless of which country within the area they are entering.
On November 14, 2012, the Trinidad Express Newspaper reported that the CCJ dismissed a claim by TCL against the CARICOM Competition Commission.
“TCL claimed that the Commission acted wrongly in two main regards: specifically, they said the Commission had not requested their approval to conduct an investigation into their business activities and that the Commission had failed to respect the rights of TCL as an ‘interested party’ according to the Revised Treaty of Chaguaramas.
CCJ said TCL’s case arose from the first matter undertaken by the Commission in fulfillment of its role under the Revised Treaty of Chaguaramas to protect and promote competition within the Community.”
According to Dr. Luncheon, the March Heads of Government of CARICOM conference held in St. Vincent and the Grenadines, opened signatures for the last and approved version of a revision of the Treaty of Chaguaramas that essentially provided greater flexibility to participating states to respond to the functioning of the CET system.
“At the bottom line, a facility that did not exist before during a suspension, a facility was introduced that allowed for a hike in the CET that was not permitted in the context in existing provisions under the CET in the treaty,” he said,
Dr. Luncheon explained the amended provision would allow participating states, during a suspension of the CET, to approach Council for Trade and Economic Development to increase the CET instead of just removing or reducing it.

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