Tweet
JMA not lobbying for increased duties
Published: Saturday | June 15, 2013
Omar Azan, GUEST COLUMNIST
King
1 2 >
Omar Azan, Guest Columist
The statements made by Dr Damien King, published in the June 14, 2013 issue of The Gleaner, are appalling, and I am calling on the economist to get his facts straight.The Jamaica Manufacturers Association (JMA) has never lobbied for an increase in import duties to protect local markets and is advising him to do his research before grossly misleading the people of Jamaica.
If you are really concerned about poor people, the price of goods and the state of our economy, you would be looking to generate wealth through local industries rather than importation of finished goods, which have been costing the country foreign exchange that we do not have.
Please note that Jamaica is a member of the World Trade Organization, which means that duties have been coming down. However, under international trading rules, countries have the right to protect their industries through the use of tariffs.
Exclusions lists
In negotiating most free-trade agreements, exclusions lists are utilised to generate revenue and to protect local industries. Protection is also given in instances where subsidies and dumping would provide an unfair advantage, and erode the competitiveness of our farmers and producers.
Even under the Treaty of Chaguaramas, member states are able to trigger the balance-of-payment safeguard clause when undergoing economic challenges to restrict imports.
Perhaps, as the economist, Dr King should be proposing that we utilise some of these measures to protect the more than 200,000 persons employed in agriculture and 75,000 in manufacturing, rather than to be threatening these industries with imported goods.
What the JMA has called for is the removal of duties on inputs in the manufacturing sector, to increase the competitiveness of Jamaican products in the local and export market. We cannot tax inputs to the productive sector, and the JMA makes no apology for this belief.
Countries such as Barbados, The Dominican Republic, Trinidad and Tobago and Thailand apply sales tax only to finished goods, and other countries such the Philippines and China offer duty-free importation on raw materials that are used to produce finished products for exportation or imported from certain zones. However, the Jamaican producers are making the sacrifice and paying the customs administration fee.
We have also advocated for consumers to buy quality local products. The two ways to grow the manufacturing sector and the economy and to stop the bleeding of the Jamaican dollar is by importing less and exporting more. Our Buy Jamaican campaign addresses this.
When Dr King states that it is in the interest of the consumer to get the best-quality product at the lowest cost, is he saying that we dont produce quality products in Jamaica? Is the Red Stripe beer and Appleton rum that you drink not of quality or competitively priced? Are the Boss, Sealy, and Therapedic mattresses not of quality?
Job creation
If the JMA is to get our way, more jobs would be created, we would earn more to repay our debts, stabilise the dollar and be in a position where we would not have to go back to the International Monetary Fund.
We want to help the Government to achieve its targets and, most of all, help the Jamaican people realise their dreams, but to do so, we must incentivise the productive sector and give it breathing room. This has nothing to do with emotion, and everything to do with the sustainability and prosperity of manufacturing and Jamaica.
We are trying to create the wealth for our people so that they can afford more than the chicken back and the chicken neck that you refer to. Right now we are living above our means, so why is an economist supporting importation? Why not prescribe an agenda for growth and development?
We are agitated by the continuous battle in having to convince advisers and those shaping the minds of our university students, who are contemplating where they will get jobs, of how valuable manufacturing is to our society.
Omar Azan is immediate past president of the Jamaica Manufacturers Association. Email feedback to columns@gleanerjm.com and jma@cwjamaica.com.
Published: Saturday | June 15, 2013
Omar Azan, GUEST COLUMNIST
King
1 2 >
Omar Azan, Guest Columist
The statements made by Dr Damien King, published in the June 14, 2013 issue of The Gleaner, are appalling, and I am calling on the economist to get his facts straight.The Jamaica Manufacturers Association (JMA) has never lobbied for an increase in import duties to protect local markets and is advising him to do his research before grossly misleading the people of Jamaica.
If you are really concerned about poor people, the price of goods and the state of our economy, you would be looking to generate wealth through local industries rather than importation of finished goods, which have been costing the country foreign exchange that we do not have.
Please note that Jamaica is a member of the World Trade Organization, which means that duties have been coming down. However, under international trading rules, countries have the right to protect their industries through the use of tariffs.
Exclusions lists
In negotiating most free-trade agreements, exclusions lists are utilised to generate revenue and to protect local industries. Protection is also given in instances where subsidies and dumping would provide an unfair advantage, and erode the competitiveness of our farmers and producers.
Even under the Treaty of Chaguaramas, member states are able to trigger the balance-of-payment safeguard clause when undergoing economic challenges to restrict imports.
Perhaps, as the economist, Dr King should be proposing that we utilise some of these measures to protect the more than 200,000 persons employed in agriculture and 75,000 in manufacturing, rather than to be threatening these industries with imported goods.
What the JMA has called for is the removal of duties on inputs in the manufacturing sector, to increase the competitiveness of Jamaican products in the local and export market. We cannot tax inputs to the productive sector, and the JMA makes no apology for this belief.
Countries such as Barbados, The Dominican Republic, Trinidad and Tobago and Thailand apply sales tax only to finished goods, and other countries such the Philippines and China offer duty-free importation on raw materials that are used to produce finished products for exportation or imported from certain zones. However, the Jamaican producers are making the sacrifice and paying the customs administration fee.
We have also advocated for consumers to buy quality local products. The two ways to grow the manufacturing sector and the economy and to stop the bleeding of the Jamaican dollar is by importing less and exporting more. Our Buy Jamaican campaign addresses this.
When Dr King states that it is in the interest of the consumer to get the best-quality product at the lowest cost, is he saying that we dont produce quality products in Jamaica? Is the Red Stripe beer and Appleton rum that you drink not of quality or competitively priced? Are the Boss, Sealy, and Therapedic mattresses not of quality?
Job creation
If the JMA is to get our way, more jobs would be created, we would earn more to repay our debts, stabilise the dollar and be in a position where we would not have to go back to the International Monetary Fund.
We want to help the Government to achieve its targets and, most of all, help the Jamaican people realise their dreams, but to do so, we must incentivise the productive sector and give it breathing room. This has nothing to do with emotion, and everything to do with the sustainability and prosperity of manufacturing and Jamaica.
We are trying to create the wealth for our people so that they can afford more than the chicken back and the chicken neck that you refer to. Right now we are living above our means, so why is an economist supporting importation? Why not prescribe an agenda for growth and development?
We are agitated by the continuous battle in having to convince advisers and those shaping the minds of our university students, who are contemplating where they will get jobs, of how valuable manufacturing is to our society.
Omar Azan is immediate past president of the Jamaica Manufacturers Association. Email feedback to columns@gleanerjm.com and jma@cwjamaica.com.
Comment