The Ministry of Finance says it has taken note of a release by the A Partnership for National Unity /Alliance For Change (APNU/AFC) leadership which attempts to convey that party’s indignation at a notice published by the Guyana Revenue Authority (GRA) regarding Guyana’s intended reinstatement of CARICOM’s Common External Tariff (CET) on soaps falling under the tariff heading HS 3401.
The ministry said that the ‘fact of the matter’ is that the APNU/AFC has been well aware for the longest while that, in 2018, Dominica had filed an official complaint at the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) Council for Trade and Economic Development (COTED) against several member States which were applying rates of duty on extra-regional soap less than the prescribed CET rate of 40 percent.
The ministry said that Guyana was amongst those countries, given that it was charging at the time, a rate of 20 percent.
COTED ruled on the matter and directed that all such member states which violated the CET should reinstate the 40 percent.
“Following the 2018 ruling by COTED, the then APNU/AFC government started to take steps to implement the reinstatement of the CET, including drafting the required legal instruments. They, however, did not proceed to finalize these, presumably because they were more preoccupied with trying to find a way to hold on to office illegally and preparing plans to rig the upcoming 2020 election,” the Ministry claimed.
It added that after the onset of COVID-19, the APNU/AFC government proceeded to lower the rate of duty charged by Guyana from 20 to 0 percent, which further exacerbated the CET violation.
“Worse yet, they did so without invoking emergency procedures through the appropriate COTED channels, which might have been used to regularize the matter. Instead, they acted with similar arbitrariness and highhandedness which characterized their entire five years of misrule,” the Ministry said.
Guyana Standard understands that Dominica has continued to pursue the matter bilaterally, and has suffered severe economic consequences as a result of the CET violation. Furthermore, Dominica and Guyana share an important trading relationship.
Guyana is one of Dominica’s main export markets for soaps, accounting for approximately 42 percent of Dominica’s exports. In addition, Dominica sources 75 percent of its total rice imports from Guyana and 32 percent of its total imports of sugar.
“Guyana’s failure to respect COTED’s 2018 ruling on this matter exposed our country to legal action by Dominica and other regional producers of soap through the Caribbean Court of Justice (CCJ) and could result in very substantial damages being awarded against Guyana which would, in turn, result in a significant cost to the public treasury,” the Ministry was quoted as saying.
It added that the APNU/AFC is well aware of the history of this matter, and they had started to take action to reinstate the CET.
“Despite being in full possession of the facts surrounding this matter, they have chosen once again to follow the route of trying to mislead their rapidly dwindling number of supporters with a completely contrived and fanciful misrepresentation of this matter,” the Ministry said.
