— Ministry of Finance
THE Ministry of Finance has denounced claims by the A Partnership for National Unity + Alliance For Change (APNU+AFC) regarding Guyana’s intended reinstatement of CARICOM’s Common External Tariff (CET) on soaps falling under the tariff heading HS 3401 as riddled with distortions.
According to the ministry in a release, the APNU+AFC has been well aware for the longest while that, in 2018, Dominica had filed an official complaint at the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) Council for Trade and Economic Development (COTED) against a number of Member States which were applying rates of duty on extra-regional soap less than the prescribed CET rate of 40 per cent. “Guyana was among those countries, given that we were charging at the time a rate of 20 per cent. COTED ruled on the matter and directed that all such Member States which were in violation of the CET should reinstate the 40 per cent.
“Following the 2018 ruling by COTED, the then APNU+AFC Government started to take steps to implement the reinstatement of the CET, including drafting the required legal instruments. They, however, did not proceed to finalise these, presumably because they were more preoccupied with trying to find a way to hold on to office illegally and preparing plans to rig the upcoming 2020 election,” the ministry said.
In addition, the ministry said that shortly after the onset of COVID-19, the APNU+AFC Government which was by then illegally in office, proceeded to lower the rate of duty charged by Guyana from 20 to zero per cent, which further exacerbated the CET violation.
“Worse yet, they did so without invoking emergency procedures through the appropriate COTED channels, which might have been used to regularise the matter. Instead, they acted with similar arbitrariness and highhandedness which characterised their entire five years of misrule.
“Since then, Dominica has continued to pursue the matter bilaterally, and has suffered severe economic consequences as a result of the CET violation. Furthermore, Dominica and Guyana share an important trading relationship. Guyana is one of Dominica’s main export markets for soaps, accounting for approximately 42 per cent of Dominica’s exports. In addition, Dominica sources 75 per cent of its total rice imports from Guyana and 32 per cent of its total imports of sugar,” the release pointed out.
Guyana’s failure to respect COTED’s 2018 ruling on this matter, the Ministry of Finance said, exposed the country to legal action by Dominica and other regional producers of soap through the Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ) and could result in very substantial damages being awarded against it.
The APNU+AFC, the minister noted is well aware of the history of this matter, and they had themselves already started to take action to reinstate the CET before putting the reinstatement on pause. “Despite being in full possession of the facts surrounding this matter, they have chosen once again to follow the route of trying to mislead their rapidly dwindling number of supporters with a completely contrived and fanciful misrepresentation of this matter. “No soap imported from Dominica or any other CET Member State would be subject to duty. The reinstated CET applies only to soaps imported from outside the CET region. “The action taken today is consistent with the current Government’s respect for the rule of law, the CET being a legally binding regional obligation. This action is also consistent with Guyana’s solidarity with our brothers and sisters in Dominica for whom soap manufacturing is a major industry, a major employer, and a major source of foreign exchange. In exactly the same manner, Guyana would not wish for any other CARICOM Member State to violate the CET as it relates to any of the goods we produce and can export to the region,” the release noted.
