Non-tariff barriers keeping Guyanese chicken out of T&T - Jagdeo
GUYANA - Cheaper chicken from Guyana that should have begun flooding Trinidad supermarkets at the beginning of the year never arrived because of sanitary requirement trade barriers, said that country's President Bharrat Jagdeo.
9 July 2007
2 minute read
"We have less tariff restrictions and more non-tariff barriers put up to trade in the region," he said.
Jagdeo spoke on the issue during the 28th Meeting of the Caribbean Community (Caricom) Heads of Government Conference that took place last week at the Hilton Barbados hotel in St Michael.
The Patrick Manning administration had announced late last year that chicken and poultry products were to be imported from Guyana in an effort to deal with rising food prices.
An Agriculture Ministry team was scheduled to travel to Guyana to inspect the sole source of the chicken to be exported to Trinidad and Tobago and the products were supposed to be available in local supermarkets by the end of February.
To date, no chicken from Guyana has arrived in Trinidad and Tobago.
"It was a phyto-sanitary issue because Guyana become self sufficient in the production of chicken and our production level just skyrocketed. So we have grave problems with phyto-sanitary standards and this is one area we have to look at," Jagdeo said.
