It gives me great pleasure to welcome you to Guyana on the occasion of the 32nd Special meeting of the Agriculture COTED. I am saddened to learn that this may very well be the final Agricultural COTED for 2009, and indeed for quite some time. I am saddened because there seems to be so much that remains to be done in Agriculture in our part of the world.
But let me leave sad thoughts for the moment and invite you to visit different parts of the country, mingle with our friendly people and savour our excellent cuisine made of ingredients all grown in Guyana. At the end of it all, I am sure you will be making plans to return for a longer relaxing visit.
It is evident from a perusal of the Agenda for today’s meeting that the Secretariat was constrained by the limited time available. And, indeed, it will be a challenge to adequately deal with what has been requested of us. But, I am confident we will undertake the task before us with the usual dedication and intellectual energy.
I expect a lively discussion on the Liliendaal Declaration on Agriculture and Food Security, and it may not be necessary to remind colleagues that our Heads have pointed out to us what our focus must be in terms of the priority regional actions. It is now for us to mobilize and get on with the job. As mandated by the Heads’ Declaration our emphasis must be on delivering on the Jagdeo Initiative – the key to transforming the Region's agriculture and ensure food and nutrition security.
Another important item is the establishment of the Caribbean Agricultural Health and Food Safety Agency which has been long in the making. It is hoped that the admirable gesture on the part of Suriname to host the Agency will finally bring to fruition the efforts that have been expended over the past decade. The operationalisation of the Agency, the creation of the associated National Agencies, and the harmonization of the Region’s sanitary and phytosanitary legislation are essential for us to be able to participate in the Global market place and even remove barriers to intraregional trade.
And, this logically brings me to the items that we are being asked to discuss under Agricultural Trade Facilitation. While we are somewhat disappointed at the slow progress being made in respect of market access intra-regionally, we have at the same time been heartened by what has come out of the work of the Expert CARICOM Team (ECT). We must identify the financing to allow the ECT to expand its scope and continue its work. In each and every situation where extra-regional goods are being imported into CARICOM the Member States must be allowed an opportunity to compete.
And, because it may be a while before we have a full Agriculture COTED, I wish to urge that we all recognize that production in any one of our States is in fact CARICOM production. Our national industries are CARICOM industries.
On this note, I wish to advise that Guyana expects a bumper rice crop, the highest in recent decades, and it will be expected that all CARICOM Member States will support the Caribbean rice industry by looking in our direction. We must also insist that extra-regional rice, heavily subsidized, is not allowed in the Region, and if States do insist, the Common External Tariff must be applied as we also need to ensure that our rice producers have access to our Region’s market.
I am also happy that we will be seeking to reaffirm the commitment given by the Government of Haiti to allow all CARICOM goods duty free access. Within this framework, Guyana intends to pursue a MOU to allow duty-free access for rice which currently faces a tariff of 8% thus restricting export to just about 25,000 tonnes per annum.
Allow me to conclude on a note of caution, while we have seen a recent decline in the price of agricultural commodities and food products, globally, we must not be complacent and lose our focus on the transformation of Region’s agricultural sector and support for our farmers and agri-business sector. From all economic outlooks and given the anticipated catastrophic impact of climate change on world food supply, if we do not continue, and in fact intensify, the agriculture and good food production momentum, we will once again find out, as we did in the global food crisis, how vulnerable we are and the hardships which can visit our peoples.
Once again, welcome to Guyana and I look forward to the expected fruitful discussions.
Thank you.
