PRESS RELEASE
Caribbean Community Secretariat, P.O. Box 10827,
Turkeyen, Greater Georgetown, Guyana;
Tel: 592-222-0001/0075 Fax: 592-222-0171; E-mail: <carisec3@caricom.org
NO: 321/2012
DATE: 11th December 2012
(CARICOM Secretariat, Turkeyen, Greater Georgetown, Guyana)
Statement issued
by the Thirty-Fifth Meeting of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) Council for
Trade and Economic Development (COTED)
on the
Threat to CARICOM
Exports of Rum to the United
States
The Council for Trade and Economic Development
(COTED) of the Caribbean Community (CARICOM), meeting in Georgetown, Guyana,
on 10-11 December 2012, underlined that rum production and export are critical
to the social and economic well-being of the Region. In addition to being the
largest agriculture-based export industry in CARICOM, the rum industry is a
substantial employer and a major contributor to foreign exchange earnings and
government revenues.
Therefore,
CARICOM continues to have serious concerns about the threat to the
competitiveness of Caribbean rum in the United States (US) market resulting
from the massive subsidies provided by the Governments of the United States
Virgin Islands (USVI) and Puerto Rico to
multinational rum producers in those territories. The nature and scale of these
subsidies are such that they threaten to distort rum markets not only in the US but
elsewhere.
Time is not on the side of the Caribbean
rum industry. Given the likely deleterious effect of these subsidies on the
long-term viability of an industry which is of such critical importance to the
economic fabric of so many countries in the Region, the COTED supports strongly
the deep commitment of CARICOM countries to pursuing all avenues available to
secure a resolution of this matter that restores the competitive balance in the
marketplace.
The COTED calls
on the United States to
engage early with Caribbean rum-producing countries with a view to achieving an
outcome that will support the continued competitive access for Caribbean rum to
the US
market.
