The CARICOM Secretariat is concerned by suggestions coming out of Grenada and reported in the regional media that the CARICOM Common Market is not operating in an “equitable manner”
The CARICOM Secretariat wishes to state that all decisions to approve or deny requests for suspensions of the Common External Tariff (CET) are made with strict adherence to the governing rules and procedures established by the Community.
Under Article 32.3 of the Treaty establishing the Caribbean Community and Common Market (the Treaty of Chaguaramas),
When a Member State applies for a suspension of the CET to allow the importation of a particular commodity from sources outside of the Region at a rate of duty lower than that required by the CET, the following procedures which have been set by the Common Market Council are followed in each instance:
- 1. The Secretariat informs all other Member States of the application, requesting confirmation, within fourteen days, of whether they are in a position to supply the particular commodity for which the exemption is being requested.
2. If, within fourteen days, any one or more Member States inform the Secretariat that they are in a position to supply the full amount of the commodity for which the suspension of the CET is being requested, application for the suspension is denied.
3. If, within fourteen days, any one or more Member States inform the Secretariat that they can supply a portion of the amount of the commodity for which the Suspension of the CET is being requested, a suspension is granted for that portion of the amount of the commodity which cannot be supplied by Member States.
4. If, after fourteen days, Member States have not responded, or if they advise that they cannot supply any amount of the particular commodity, a Certificate of Suspension of the Common External Tariff is granted for the specific quantity of the commodity requested, for a specified period of time.
So far in 1997, Grenada has applied for the suspension of the CET on rice in April, May and September. In April, no Member State indicated an ability to supply the type of rice for which the suspension was requested, therefore a certificate of suspension of the CET was issued to allow Grenada to import 1500 metric tonnes of rice. In May and September, Grenada’s applications for suspension of the CET were not approved because Guyana indicated, within the stipulated fourteen days, its ability to supply the types and quantities of rice for which the applications had been made.
It should be noted that since the beginning of this year, applications were received from three other Member States – Jamaica, St. Vincent and the Grenadines and Trinidad and Tobago – for suspension of the CET to enable them to import rice into the Region. In January, St. Vincent and the Grenadines was granted a suspension of the CET on 8,000 tonnes of rice while Trinidad and Tobago was granted a suspension for 12,000 of rice until July 1997. The request made by Jamaica in February was turned down, since the required rice could have been sourced within the Region from Belize, Suriname and Trinidad and Tobago.
In May, Trinidad and Tobago sought suspension of the CET for 24,000 tonnes of rice, but the suspension was only granted for 6,000 tonnes as Guyana indicated that it could supply 18,000 tonnes of the type of rice for which the suspension was requested. Like Grenada, St. Vincent and the Grenadines made a request in September. This was turned down as Guyana indicated that it could supply the amount of the type of rice for which the suspension was requested.
