Shaw backs down JMEA says minister withdraws threat to tax imported granulated sugar
LESS THAN a day after stridently vowing to reinstate a cess on imported processed sugar, Audley Shaw, the minister of industry, commerce, agriculture and fisheries, has reportedly backed down from that position, following a meeting with the Jamaica Manufacturers and Exporters Association (JMEA).
“The minister will be issuing a press release tomorrow (today) that will clearly state that there will be no duty placed on sugar for manufacturers’ use coming into Jamaica and that we have found more appropriate and better ways to deal with the issue – if it exists,” Metry Seaga, president of the JMEA, told The Gleaner.
Describing his two-hour meeting with Shaw as “very fruitful”, Seaga said: “I think we are in a better place today than we were yesterday. In addition, the minister outlined that if manufacturers were offended in any way, that was not his intention and he didn’t mean to paint us with a broad brush.”
The improved relationship between the manufacturers and the minister is reportedly due in large measure to the influence of Phillip Henriques, chairman of the Sugar Industry Authority (SIA), with whom Seaga also had dialogue for two hours immediately before meeting with Shaw.
“We have come to a unified position that the JMEA and the SIA will be working closely together moving forward to address any issues that exist in the industry – whether real or perceived. Henriques is openminded, and we have the SIA at the table with a chairman that seems to want to make a difference and do the right thing,” Seaga said.