Regional sugar body to meet over COTED’s import tariff decision

Nov 29, 2019 News

Directors of the Sugar Association of the Caribbean (SAC) are due to meet in early December to reflect on a decision taken by the Caribbean Community (CARICOM)’s Council for Trade and Economic Development (COTED) on the incremental enforcement of tariffs on imported white sugar, as and when the region produces it.
The body in a public statement yesterday noted that the COTED decision does serve as an incentive, “needed by regional sugar producers, for continued investment in value-added products, with the confidence that they will have a home in their own regional market”.
It was noted that presently over two-thirds of market demand in CARICOM is imported from outside the region, leaving sugar producers little choice than to export their own product on the global market at unremunerative prices.
The COTED meeting had also agreed to the immediate establishment of a mechanism to monitor all regional sugar flows.
“This will play a major part in strengthening enforcement of existing arrangements for extra-regional sugar imports, providing a realistic assessment of supply and demand moving forward,” according to the SAC.
“Part of this will be to ensure that the CET on brown sugar, which is currently entering the market from outside the region, must be rigorously enforced by member states.”
The COTED decisions came following a detailed analysis of the widespread use of Plantation White sugar in manufacturing both globally and within the region.
According to SAC, the COTED decisions reflect “an understanding between manufacturers and sugar producers that when quality of regional production is assured, it will receive tariff protection in accordance with the provisions of the Revised Treaty.”

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