GEORGETOWN, Guyana – Guyana's government says the decision by Trinidad and Tobago to prevent a shipment of milk and water from one of the country’s largest producers of dairy products “is an affront to the spirit of Caribbean integration agenda and must not be accepted”.
The Ministry Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation in a statement issued on Tuesday night, said that along with the Ministry of Agriculture, they have been of the incident as it relates to “non-acceptance of dairy products produced by one of the country’s largest producers of dairy products which was destined for the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago.
“It is noted that under the Revised Treaty of Chaguaramas, the implementation of the CARICOM Single Market and Economy (CSME) to which both Trinidad and Tobago and Guyana subscribe, requires free movement of goods and services under the regional integration framework.
“The refusal of entry to the dairy products wholly produced in Guyana by CARICOM member state is an affront to the spirit of Caribbean integration agenda and must not be accepted,” the ministry said in its statement.
On Tuesday, the Demerara Distillers Limited’s (DDL) said that its packaged milk and containers of bottled flavoured water had been paced under heavy scrutiny by Port of Spain in moves that are of “grave concern” to it.
Speaking at a news conference, DDL Chairman, Komal Samaroo, told reporters that these developments run counter to the free trade agreements in the region and diminish regional food security goals.
He said four 20-foot shipping containers with the products were shipped to Trinidad in March given that DDL had opted to export these products after working alongside a Trinidadian partner to determine the demand for the product there.
He said the products are worth an estimated US$130,000.
“Regrettably the two containers of packaged milk products were denied entry and returned to Guyana, while the bottled water products have been restricted from sale pending the completion of an unconventionally exhaustive examination of these bottled water products,” Samaroo told reporters.
He said the milk products were subjected to “extremely onerous and stringent” requirements in keeping with Trinidad’s Animal Disease and Importation Act.
He said these requirements are not in keeping with the thrust for greater intra-regional trade to meet CARICOM’s goal of reducing food import bill by 25 per cent in 2025.
The DDL chairman said that Guyana has no such reciprocal requirement nor do other countries in the region that the company exports its product to.
Samaroo dismissed any suggestion that the Trinidadian partner had not conducted the necessary groundwork and vowed that the company would take the matter “as far as necessary” even possibly, to the Trinidad-based Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ) which also serves as an international tribunal interpreting the Revised Treaty of Chaguaramas that governs the regional integration movement.
In its statement, the Guyana government said It is appreciated that regional products must satisfy the necessary sanitary and phytosanitary rules, the technical regulations as well as any product specific rules of origin required to qualify the products for regional preferential treatment.
“Available information indicates that the dairy products from Guyana destined into Trinidad and Tobago were in full compliance with these requirements,” it said, adding that “while some details about the transaction and what led to the incident are still being discussed, the Guyana Livestock Development Agency (GLDA) remains in close contact with its counterparts in Trinidad and Tobago, the exporter and the importer to resolve this matter within the shortest possible time.
“Guyana remains committed to ensuring that nationals who wish to exercise or take advantage of rights granted by the Revised Treaty of Chaguaramas and other regional protocol under the integration agenda, are not unduly restricted.
“Guyana has opened its market to regional producers, it is expected that market access for products from Guyana into any CARICOM country is guaranteed for full benefits of regional integration to be realised,” the statement added.
