And keeping it on sugar, we told you how the Caribbean Court of Justice has handed down a judgment in the lawsuit that the State of Belize brought against its CARICOM counterpart, Trinidad & Tobago.
Belize accused Trinidad and Tobago of allowing the importation of brown sugar produced in countries that are not a part of the Single Market without imposing the 40% Common External Tariff. Belize further alleged that because of this trade violation of the Revised Treaty of Chaguaramas, BSI and Santander Sugar were losing sales to this country - which is likely Guatemala, we should add.
Well, yesterday, the panel of CCJ judges ruled that Belize did NOT adequately prove its accusation against Trinidad and Tobago.
Today, BSI's Communications & Government Affairs Officer told us that BSI and the other Caribbean Sugar Producers don't consider this a loss:
William Neal, Communications Director, A.S.R./B.S.I.
"It is significant for us, because they also spoke about the CET and the role of the CET and that as a regional producer, we should have access to the market and that's the way that the revised treaty of Chaguaramas was set up to make sure that we have that access. What we saw in terms of our market surveillance was that the case was filed 3rd August 2020 and immediately following that there was a doubling of the sugar that we were able to sell into CARICOM and then that was for 2020 and then for 2021 we saw another doubling of the sugar. So if we started off at 5, we went to 10 and then from 10 to 20 which is significant in terms of the volumes that are sold, so for us we look at it a very important step into making people recognize that we're not just going to sit quietly by while we have evidence to show that sugar is coming into the region, especially brown sugar which is produced in the region and is prohibited unless you pay the CET."
"So we thought that was important to put everyone on notice to say that we will continue, not only BSI, but the sugar association of the Caribbean, will as a collective look at what's happening and make sure that market forces are not being distorted to prevent or produced our sugars from entering the CARICOM market."
Reporter
"What do you make of the judge's clear explanation that the CET has a role to play in that it protects the regional producers, but it does not guarantee them as access to the Caribbean market?"
William Neal, Communications Director, A.S.R./B.S.I.
"I think that's a very key statement, because the CET in itself was envisioned to function to make sure that if there is proper policing, but like any other rule, if you don't have the proper policing in place, then of course you're going to have abuses and that's what we were pointing out, that there were abuses."
From the Written judgment, the CCJ says, quote, "...No one disputes that Belize has made very significant investment in its agricultural sector in general and in sugar cultivation and production specifically…those producers are entitled to the protection of the market that the tariff is intended to provide. " End quote.
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