The trade and economic arm of CARICOM, COTED, is presently meeting in Antigua to discuss the Common External Tariff (CET) waiver request by Jamaica for the importation of some 30,000 metric tonnes of rice from extra-regional sources.
Jamaica, it is believed, plans on importing the rice from the United States through a private company on that island which is owned by a very large American corporation.

This request will not be supported this time around by Guyana as emphasised by Guyana’s Minister of Agriculture, Mr. Robert Persaud. Guyana is being well represented at the meeting.

In December 2007, Guyana supported a similar request by Jamaica for a lesser tonnage since limited supplies were available out of Guyana.

The waiver request would have been supported by Guyana had us not been in a position to meet the rice requirements of Jamaica.

The fact is, as clearly stated by Minister Persaud and Mr. Jagnarine Singh, General Manager of the Guyana Rice Development Board (GRDB), we have enough rice to sell to Jamaica and also to meet our other export commitments in the Caribbean, Europe and elsewhere.

Mr. Singh and other senior government officials from Guyana will tell this to the COTED.

Both Minister Persaud as well as Mr. Singh must be complimented for the principled stand they have adopted.

I recently attended a meeting in Jamaica with Mr. Singh and Mr. Cecil Seepersaud, Head Agricultural Projects Cycle Unit, Ministry of Agriculture where we met with Jamaican Ministers Karl Samuda and Michael Stern, senior staffers of the Jamaican Ministry of Trade as well as rice importers there.

It was very clear that the larger Jamaican rice importers were not too keen on rice imports from Guyana but would rather import rice from the US. US-owned companies in Jamaica would prefer to support the importation of US rice.

I made the point at the meeting that the issue is not one of the availability of supplies from Guyana but rather the price.

I have written evidence showing very clearly that the Jamaicans, quite recently, said they could not buy rice from my company since their required imports of 12,000 metric tonnes at the time was fully covered by other suppliers from Guyana. We are now hearing of a request for a CET waiver on 30,000 tonnes!!

Subsequently, they indicated that the suppliers from Guyana, with whom they presumably signed contracts, failed to deliver the supplies. This was attributed to skyrocketing rice prices even after the contracts were signed. It appears as though the Jamaicans were reluctant to sit at the table and renegotiate.

On several occasions, thereafter, I confirmed my company’s interests in supplying the said Jamaican company with rice but each time my offers were rejected on the basis that my prices were too high when, in fact, the prices I quoted were well below world market prices - and below US prices!!

My latest offer to them dated just four days ago was also not responded to as I believe the Jamaicans were busy with the preparation of a dossier to be presented to COTED in support of their request. It is evident that they are in the forefront canvassing all and sundry to be allowed to import US rice without paying the tariff.

While at the political level, the players may mean well and would like to see the advancement of CARICOM, we have in our midst those bent on disrupting and possibly derailing such progression. Such a display by Jamaica surely does not augur well for the establishment of the CARICOM Single Market and Economy (CSME).

Guyana’s rice farmers, and I do believe rice farmers from around the globe, have suffered too long because rice prices remained very low in the face of rising input costs and subsidies in the developed world.

My personal opinion is that the price of rice is at a level where it should have been some time ago.

It is in the interest of our farmers, millers and country that we provide them with the best possible prices. However, we cannot price ourselves out of the market but then again, like the Jamaica company would want us to do, we cannot sell at unrealistically low prices.

The Food and Agricultural Organisation (FAO) of the United Nations (UN) has projected the world rice situation to remain like this for the next 2-3 years.

Though there is likely to be a levelling off, and possibly a short dip in prices at some point in time, rice prices are not expected to return to the low levels of yester-year. To add to all of this is this week’s devastation of around 500,000 tonnes rice in the Irrawaddy Delta of Myanmar (Burma) by cyclone (hurricane) `Nargis which has also left more than 22,500 people dead. `Nargis is believed to have also caused widespread damage to the infrastructure in the region and this will add more pressure to global rice output.

Our friends in Jamaica must start getting accustomed to what is happening globally and start to accept that the days of cheap rice - from Guyana or anywhere - are long gone.

It is in the interest of the Jamaican consumers that their country continues to import Guyana’s rice. Rice imports from extra-regional sources such at the US will attract the 25% CET, making it very expensive for the consumers there.

COTED cannot rule in favour of Jamaica as this will be a flagrant violation of the rules of trade of CARICOM.

It is stated very clearly that the CET waiver will only be granted where there is no or limited supply of a particular commodity produced by a member state and which is required by another member state.

In the case of rice, we have enough to meet the needs of Jamaica. The issue is the price and this cannot be the basis for the granting of the CET waiver.
MAHADEO PANCHU
Managing Director
DEMERARA IMPORTS & EXPORTS, INC.