Bridgetown.
Over 500 jobs will be lost in the agricultural and manufacturing sectors if the Government implements a suggestion by operator of Subway Restaurants to lower the food import tariff on certain items from 184 percent to 20 percent.
Ths was disclosed at a joint press conference held by the Barbados Agricultural Society (BAS) and the Barbados Manufacturers Association at the BAS headquarters, on Beckles Road, St. Michael recently.
The two organisations were responding to a recent call by Frederick George of Alfundi , who operates the two local Subway Restaurants, to allow his company to continue paying 20 per cent tariff on its importation of food materials instead of the 184 per cent.
Chief Executive Officer of the BAS, James Paul, explained that the lower rate which Subway was paying, was a mistake within the system, in that the higher tariff had been in place for a long time now.
Paul and Executive Director of the BMA, Bobbi McKay, stated that the 184 per cent was needed to protect local manufacturers from unfair competition by foreign investors, whose products were heavily subsidised and who got very little of their items from local sources.
Paul and McKay told reporters that farmers, feed producers and others in the agricultural and manufacturing sectors may have to send home workers and shut down, because they would not be able to compete with foreign businesses, which were already heavily subsidised.
Paul announced though, that the BAS and BMA had made representation to the relevent ministries to support them in their stand to keep the 184 per cent tariff in place as a protective measure for local businesses. The BAS CEO disclosed that the Government had given the assurance that the higher rate of duty would be retained.
“We are not here to belittle the efforts of Mr. George. The fact is he is here at a time when Barbados is experiencing difficult economic times; and we feel that it is necessary for us to have all hands on board, and we want to emphasise that generally within the private sector, as you would see between the BAS and BMA, we’ve had a collaborative relationship that tries to ensure that we have all sectors on board, to the extent that if any issues come up that affect each other, we work together very closely in terms of trying to address them,” asserted Paul.
He said their aim was to ensure their members were protected a make it clear that the rationale behind the high duty was to ensure there was a level playing field for local producers against commodities made in foreign lands.
