New Ja-T&T Trade War - Duties Imposed On Product After Questions Arise Over Origin

 

JAMAICAN AUTHORITIES have imposed duties on the importation of lubricating oil from Trinidad and Tobago in another round of trade wars between the Caribbean territories.

Industry Minister Anthony Hylton told legislators yesterday that he has exercised his ministerial authority to secure the transfer of $184 million to the Consolidated Fund.

The money, Hylton said, represented duties charged by the Customs Department for the importation of a product over which there is question mark surrounding the rules of origin.

According to Hylton, the Trinidad and Tobago government has been silent on the matter of rules of origin surrounding the exportation of lubrication oils by the state-owned oil company, Petroleum Company of Trinidad and Tobago Limited (Petrotrin).

Hylton said that further to a complaint from a Jamaican private-sector firm alleging that the rule of origin in the Treaty of Chaguaramas was being circumvented by Petrotrin, Jamaica Customs sought information from the Trinidad and Tobago authorities and has been virtually ignored.

MISREPRESENTATION

He said the private-sector company alleged that the product was being represented as a product of Trinidad and Tobago when it was not.

"The applicable rules require the Trinidad and Tobago government to respond to a verification request within six weeks. It is now over six months, and there has been no verification response by the government of Trinidad and Tobago," Hylton said.

 

 

Details

Date Posted

May 15 2013