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Breakthrough in trade dispute - Juici Patties' export bid reopens regional standards debate
Published: Friday | May 22, 2009
Huntley Medley, Contributing Editor - [COLOR=orange ! important][COLOR=orange ! important]Business[/COLOR][/COLOR]
Jamaica's foreign minister Ken Baugh. - File
Some eight years after the Jukie Chin-owned Juici Patties is believed to have first signalled its intention to break into the Trinidad and Tobago market, there appears to be some clearing of bureaucratic delays and non-tariff barriers.
The shift also follows what appeared to have been a veiled threat by industry and commerce minister, Karl Samuda to impose retaliatory import restrictions on Trinidadian goods entering Jamaica.
Jamaica's foreign minister Ken Baugh, said this week that it appears progress is being made, saying both beer and spirits, as well as animal products have been facing roadblocks from Belize and Trinidad, respectively.
Issues resolution
"We agreed on both a regional and bilateral approach which should lead to a resolution of both issues," Baugh said.
Speaking in the Budget Debate in Parliament earlier this month, Samuda said at least one Jamaican manufacturer had reported encountering difficulties exporting to Trinidad, triggering a declaration that, "same knife stick sheep, stick goat" - indicating a threat of retaliation.
Samuda later said he would be sending a team to several CARICOM states to assess tariff arrangements.
It appeared that while exports from CARICOM member states enter each other's markets duty and tariff free under the CARICOM Single Market arrangement, non-tariff barriers such as sanitary and phytosanitary (SPS) rules, are being used to block or delay some exports within the community.
The issue reportedly came to a head at a meeting of Caricom's Council for Trade and Economic Development (COTED) in Guyana last week.
Information out of the meeting in Georgetown, the home of the CARICOM secretariat, is that Jamaica vigorously opposed a move for Juici Patties to be subject to site inspections by a team from Trinidad, before its export bid can be considered, notwithstanding certification by the Jamaican export standards authorities.
Standards certification
Jamaica's standards certification [COLOR=orange ! important][COLOR=orange ! important]machinery[/COLOR][/COLOR] is considered to be ahead of most other CARICOM countries, many of which do not have their own standards authority, a fact that resulted in Jamaica taking a lead role back in 2003 in the establishment of the Regional Organisation for Standards and Quality or CROSQ.
It is also believed that inspections by the importing country have in the past proved too subjective and used as a delaying tactic.
The position of the Jamaican delegation, led by Baugh and including chief [COLOR=orange ! important][COLOR=orange ! important]veterinary[/COLOR][/COLOR] officer in Jamaica's agriculture ministry, Dr Osbil Watson, forced bilateral meetings between Jamaica and Trinidad on the margins of the meeting.
Forward movement
"There was some forward movement on the matter following the talks," said one Jamaican government source, who requested anonymity.
The decisions arrived at were however, not fully disclosed.
But Baugh, having thrown down the gauntlet and accused trading partners of throwing up roadblocks to Jamaican exporters, demanded a rollback of such actions.
"We expect to have a response from Belize within a few weeks advising of the action that they will take to deal with their breaching of the treaty which harms our exporters," he said in a ministry statement.
Juici Patties' Juki Chin was said to be traveling when the Financial Gleaner sought comment.
At the same time that the trade war over the export of meat products was brewing between the two Caricom member states, Caricom was being approached by the Saint Lucia-based Almond Resorts International for approval to import beef products from Panama.
In its December 2008 letter, Almond Resorts said it had already received country-level approval for the imports.
In its latest attempt to nudge the process forward, Juici Patties formally submitted an application for the export of its meat products to Trinidad at a meeting of CARICOM's chief veterinary officers (CVOs) in Jamaica in March this year.
A industry source close to the issue said Jamaica has for years tried unsuccessfully to have common standards for poultry, [COLOR=orange ! important][COLOR=orange ! important]fish[/COLOR][/COLOR] and meat products agreed and adoptedby CARICOM states to govern intra-regional trade.
It is believed that the absence of [COLOR=orange ! important][COLOR=orange ! important]uniform[/COLOR][/COLOR] standards and lack of SPS assessment capabilities in many CARICOM countries have been used as administrative delay tactics by some states to block imports even as meat and meat products enter the community from extra-regional exporters.
President of the Caribbean Agribusiness Association, Jamaica's Dr Keith Amiel acknowledged that the issue has been under discussion for some time.
Traditional links
"Some CARICOM countries have preferred to maintain traditional links for the importation of poultry and meats," Amiel said.
The expansion of the Jamaican fish, poultry and meat sectors, he added, depended heavily on asignificant breakthrough into exports markets.
Questions to the CARICOM secretariat remained unanswered up to press time.
At the CVOs meeting in March, Jamaica again placed the matter of common standards on the agenda, and designed a questionnaire aimed at assisting the process of harmonising import protocols among Caricom countries for intra-regional trade in meat and meat products, poultry and poultry products, and fish and fisheries products.
The document sought to determine the level of risk that may be associated with these products by capturing information relating to government inspection oversight, control programmes, laws and regulations, the type of products intended for intra- regional trade, slaughter and processing procedures, disease surveillance, import and export control, and laboratory capacity.
huntley.medley@gleanerjm.com
Published: Friday | May 22, 2009
Huntley Medley, Contributing Editor - [COLOR=orange ! important][COLOR=orange ! important]Business[/COLOR][/COLOR]
Jamaica's foreign minister Ken Baugh. - File
Some eight years after the Jukie Chin-owned Juici Patties is believed to have first signalled its intention to break into the Trinidad and Tobago market, there appears to be some clearing of bureaucratic delays and non-tariff barriers.
The shift also follows what appeared to have been a veiled threat by industry and commerce minister, Karl Samuda to impose retaliatory import restrictions on Trinidadian goods entering Jamaica.
Jamaica's foreign minister Ken Baugh, said this week that it appears progress is being made, saying both beer and spirits, as well as animal products have been facing roadblocks from Belize and Trinidad, respectively.
Issues resolution
"We agreed on both a regional and bilateral approach which should lead to a resolution of both issues," Baugh said.
Speaking in the Budget Debate in Parliament earlier this month, Samuda said at least one Jamaican manufacturer had reported encountering difficulties exporting to Trinidad, triggering a declaration that, "same knife stick sheep, stick goat" - indicating a threat of retaliation.
Samuda later said he would be sending a team to several CARICOM states to assess tariff arrangements.
It appeared that while exports from CARICOM member states enter each other's markets duty and tariff free under the CARICOM Single Market arrangement, non-tariff barriers such as sanitary and phytosanitary (SPS) rules, are being used to block or delay some exports within the community.
The issue reportedly came to a head at a meeting of Caricom's Council for Trade and Economic Development (COTED) in Guyana last week.
Information out of the meeting in Georgetown, the home of the CARICOM secretariat, is that Jamaica vigorously opposed a move for Juici Patties to be subject to site inspections by a team from Trinidad, before its export bid can be considered, notwithstanding certification by the Jamaican export standards authorities.
Standards certification
Jamaica's standards certification [COLOR=orange ! important][COLOR=orange ! important]machinery[/COLOR][/COLOR] is considered to be ahead of most other CARICOM countries, many of which do not have their own standards authority, a fact that resulted in Jamaica taking a lead role back in 2003 in the establishment of the Regional Organisation for Standards and Quality or CROSQ.
It is also believed that inspections by the importing country have in the past proved too subjective and used as a delaying tactic.
The position of the Jamaican delegation, led by Baugh and including chief [COLOR=orange ! important][COLOR=orange ! important]veterinary[/COLOR][/COLOR] officer in Jamaica's agriculture ministry, Dr Osbil Watson, forced bilateral meetings between Jamaica and Trinidad on the margins of the meeting.
Forward movement
"There was some forward movement on the matter following the talks," said one Jamaican government source, who requested anonymity.
The decisions arrived at were however, not fully disclosed.
But Baugh, having thrown down the gauntlet and accused trading partners of throwing up roadblocks to Jamaican exporters, demanded a rollback of such actions.
"We expect to have a response from Belize within a few weeks advising of the action that they will take to deal with their breaching of the treaty which harms our exporters," he said in a ministry statement.
Juici Patties' Juki Chin was said to be traveling when the Financial Gleaner sought comment.
At the same time that the trade war over the export of meat products was brewing between the two Caricom member states, Caricom was being approached by the Saint Lucia-based Almond Resorts International for approval to import beef products from Panama.
In its December 2008 letter, Almond Resorts said it had already received country-level approval for the imports.
In its latest attempt to nudge the process forward, Juici Patties formally submitted an application for the export of its meat products to Trinidad at a meeting of CARICOM's chief veterinary officers (CVOs) in Jamaica in March this year.
A industry source close to the issue said Jamaica has for years tried unsuccessfully to have common standards for poultry, [COLOR=orange ! important][COLOR=orange ! important]fish[/COLOR][/COLOR] and meat products agreed and adoptedby CARICOM states to govern intra-regional trade.
It is believed that the absence of [COLOR=orange ! important][COLOR=orange ! important]uniform[/COLOR][/COLOR] standards and lack of SPS assessment capabilities in many CARICOM countries have been used as administrative delay tactics by some states to block imports even as meat and meat products enter the community from extra-regional exporters.
President of the Caribbean Agribusiness Association, Jamaica's Dr Keith Amiel acknowledged that the issue has been under discussion for some time.
Traditional links
"Some CARICOM countries have preferred to maintain traditional links for the importation of poultry and meats," Amiel said.
The expansion of the Jamaican fish, poultry and meat sectors, he added, depended heavily on asignificant breakthrough into exports markets.
Questions to the CARICOM secretariat remained unanswered up to press time.
At the CVOs meeting in March, Jamaica again placed the matter of common standards on the agenda, and designed a questionnaire aimed at assisting the process of harmonising import protocols among Caricom countries for intra-regional trade in meat and meat products, poultry and poultry products, and fish and fisheries products.
The document sought to determine the level of risk that may be associated with these products by capturing information relating to government inspection oversight, control programmes, laws and regulations, the type of products intended for intra- regional trade, slaughter and processing procedures, disease surveillance, import and export control, and laboratory capacity.
huntley.medley@gleanerjm.com
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