Bridgetown.
The Government of region will use diplomatic channels first to settle the disturbing policy of the United States which puts Caribbean rum at a disadvantage.
Rum producers in the Caribbean have been complaining about the US policy which had resulted in subsidies being extended to manufacturers of rum in United States Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico.
Speaking in Parliament on the issue yesterday, Prime Minister Freundel Stuart said the subsidies had distorted market conditions and had put rum producers in the region at a disadvantage.
He stated that Barbados earned significant foreign exchange from rum production and could not afford to have that kind of distortion.
Stuart told Parliament that Jamaica's Prime Minister Portia Simpson-Miller, who is responsible for external trade in the Caribbean Community (CARICOM), had raised the issue at the last CARICOM meeting while it had also been discussed at the Council for Trade and Economic Development.
"We cannot rule the prspect of this matter reaching the WTO but that is not a first resort expedience. What we are trying to do at this stage is to discuss the matter with the United States and we are trying diplomatic means first, but of course we cannot allow the interest of Caribbean rum producers to be so exposed as to be underminded", the Prime Minister stated.
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