CARICOM 38… Re-examine dismantling of non-tariff barriers to trade agriculture products

CARICOM 38… Re-examine dismantling of non-tariff barriers to trade agriculture products – Granger

Jul 06, 2017 News

President David Granger (Right) sharing a light moment with Prime Minister of Jamaica, the Andrew Holness (Second from left) and Vice-Chancellor of University of the West Indies, Sir Hilary Beckles at plenary session of the 38th Meeting of the Conference of Heads yesterday.

Guyana’s President and outgoing Chairman of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM), David Granger, has called on the regional bloc to re-examine how it can dismantle the non-tariff barriers to trade in agricultural products.

The Head of State made this call during his remarks at the opening ceremony of the 38^th Heads of Government Conference on Tuesday.

The three-day confabulation is currently being held in Grenada.

“The Community has the land, the labour, the talent and the capital to guarantee food security for its citizens. The Community’s annual food import bill, which exceeds US$4B, is a notorious indictment of its ability to promote investment and stimulate intra-regional trade in agricultural commodities,” the outgoing Chairman said.

A non-tariff barrier is a form of restrictive trade where barriers to trade are set up and take a form other than a tariff. Non-tariff barriers include quotas, embargoes, sanctions, levies and other restrictions.

Granger said that non-tariff barriers continue to constrain trade in food.

“Commerce is the lifeblood of our economies. Small internal markets consign states to high dependence on external trade. Intraregional trade, therefore, is important. The Caribbean Common Market was established to ensure markets for regional production, inter alia.

Intraregional trade provides a basis for increasing national production, augmenting investment and generating employment. The environment is an inescapable economic reality,” the President said.

The President’s call for a re-examination would come on the heels of previous comments he would have made as it relates to food security within the region.

“The world is likely to face a food crisis by 2050 unless agricultural production increases. The Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) estimates that there will be an additional two billion mouths to feed in the world within the next 35 years. The growth of the world’s population along with increased urbanisation is expected to increase the demand for agricultural produce by some 70 per cent by 2050.” Granger said in February

He had noted, also, the opportunities for increased agricultural markets exist within CARICOM.

The Region’s agriculture’s sector share of Gross Development Product (GDP) declined from 13 percent to seven percent, over the last 25 years, reports would have indicated.

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