PORT OF SPAIN, Trinidad – Rum was on the agenda for Caricom leaders as they used yesterday’s visit by United States Vice-President Joe Biden to Trinidad and Tobago to highlight concerns about the impact of US rum subsidies to Puerto Rico and the US Virgin Islands.
“The most contentious issue is rum subsidies to Puerto Rico and the US Virgin Islands. We don’t expect (Biden) to make a decision today but we expect to let him know the whole position and the full ramifications of continuing those subsidies and that it will clearly affect rum production,” Trade Minister Vasant Bharath said yesterday.
The US has been running a “Rum Cover-Over Programme” since 1917, which consists of a tax levied on sales of spirits in the US market.
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