Legislation to deal with honey hurdle before T&T Parliament – diplomat

…says trade to be resolved by year end

Years of battling with hinderances to the transshipment of certain products, such as honey, into Trinidad and Tobago could soon come to an end with the relevant legislation currently before the Parliament of the twin-island Republic to resolve the decade-old issue.
The Guyanese private sector has for years been lamenting about the various trade barriers in place by Trinidad, which serves to block Guyanese exports to that market, and which are not being adequately addressed by the Caribbean Community’s (Caricom’s) Council for Trade and Economic Development (COTED).
Currently, Trinidad and Tobago’s honey and bee products are guided by the country’s archaic Food and Drug Act of 1960 and Beekeeping and Bee Products Act of 1935. According to the Beekeeping and Bee Products Act, only honey from the Windward and Leeward Islands can be transshipped to the twin-island Republic – something which CARICOM Member States Guyana and Grenada have long been arguing goes against the Revised Treaty of Chaguaramas.

However, Trinidad and Tobago’s High Commissioner to Guyana, Conrad Enil, has underscored the need for the regional bloc to effectively deal with non-tariff barriers that impede trade among member states, noting that his country is already taking a step in this direction by moving to resolve the honey issue.
“The legislation to deal with the honey issue is now before the Parliament, so that issue should be dealt with before the end of this year,” Enil said on Wednesday at a seminar hosted for a visiting trade mission from Trinidad and Tobago.
The Trinidadian diplomat made this remark in response to comments made by Guyana’s Foreign Secretary, Robert Persaud. Addressing the seminar, Persaud noted that Guyana has always been pushing for unhindered market access within Trinidad and Tobago. He pointed out that while Guyana has been working on addressing these challenges, and has made some progress, there are still outstanding issues in terms of accessing the array of the Trinidad and Tobago market.
“…our exporters complain about. Take, for instance, we’ve had the issue since 2013 of honey being exported [to Trinidad from Guyana being hindered]. We’ve had outstanding issues of pharmaceutical, where things are a bit vague and you’re not clear as to how it is that our pharmaceutical procurers can access Trinidad and Tobago markets,” Persaud said.
“But there are a few people in this room who will tell you that they have difficulties in exporting their products and produce from Guyana. And we’ve always been consistent, we’ve always been fully committed under the Revised Treaty of Chaguaramas, and in our commitment in terms of having an area in which we can have not only free movement [of people], but also free movement of goods and services within our Caricom space,” Persaud stated.
As recently as in June, President Dr Irfaan Ali had reassured that the issues of honey trade between Guyana and Trinidad would be resolved.
“This is the challenge of being in the region, you can’t give up. We have to have hope that it will change. I think there is a mood now, my own opinion is that there is a mood in the region now to have these trade barriers and these challenges addressed, and I am very confident that that mood could bring us results,” the Head of State had told reporters on the sidelines of a high-level regional Agriculture Ministerial meeting held in Georgetown.
The Guyanese Leader had noted that he even had discussions on this matter, and his Trinidadian counterpart, Prime Minister Keith Rowley, had committed to having it addressed.
Meanwhile, Foreign Secretary Persaud went on to highlight, during Wednesday’s seminar, the “alarming” widening of trade deficits between Guyana and Trinidad, especially as it relates to manufactured goods. While exports from Trinidad have increased by as much as US$100 million per annum in recent years, exports from Guyana to the island is just about US$100 million for the 2020-2022 period.
Nevertheless, Persaud outlined the scope in Guyana for the two nations to partner, especially in the area of manufacturing.
“We know that Trinidad and Tobago has a very thriving and a very mature manufacturing sector… We want Trinidad and Tobago manufacturers to look at Guyana as a place in which they should establish their industries, their manufacturing facilities, to not only supply the Guyanese market, but also the huge market that exists within South America… and that tremendous growing, opening market in Northern Brazil that exists,” he said.
“So, I want to encourage and to implore that the time is right, and the time has now come for us to see less exports from Trinidad and Tobago to Guyana by manufacturers, but rather see manufacturers coming and establishing partnerships, basing their facilities here, particularly in the area of food production and the other range [of industries],” the Foreign Secretary posited. (G8)