BAS study nearing conclusion
The Barbados Agricultural Society (BAS) is nearing the conclusion of a study that would determine the impact that imported goods is having on the local agricultural sector.
This is according to the CEO of the Barbados Agricultural Society (BAS), James Paul who spoke to the media at a press conference yesterday at BAS headquarters.
He stated that they recently concluded their annual general assembly and one of the areas that they are looking into in this study is if it is necessary to invoke the special safeguard provisions that are contained in the trade agreements that Barbados has signed on to in order to give the local sector a more even playing field.
“There is a second issue that I want to deal with now and this is in relation to the BAS – we recently held our annual general assembly and one of the issues that was discussed even prior to that in terms of the board meeting was whether or not we should seek to find a way to invoke the special safeguard provisions that are contained in the WTO and in the Economic Partnership Agreement in order to make the products that we produce locally more competitive.”
The CEO of the BAS, stated that this is something that they are still deliberating and once they have completed this study, they hope to have a better understanding of exactly what impact these imported goods are having on consumer demands as well as the potential for investment.
“We are still having that discussion. As a matter of fact the BAS right now are at the end of a study that we have conducted on the poultry industry and based on the results of the study, we are hoping that we would be able to conclude the impact of imports on local producers with a view of one, consumer demands. In other words, what impact does imports have consumer demands for locally produced agriculturally goods and secondly and even more important, what impact does it have on investors. In other words, persons in the country who may want to say, invest in the agricultural products. What impact does it have on the likelihood of investment in the agricultural sector?”
The latter is especially important because investments in the agricultural sector have not always been readily available, stated Paul.
“Because the problem that we are facing – and I think that the agricultural sector has – is that how can we attract greater investment in the sector and how do we expand it? One of the main advantages that has been trumpeted by a lot of the trade agreements that we have signed today including the Economic Partnership Agreement – there was some talk before about signing an agreement with Canada but I am not sure how we can materialize it – but even in terms of the WTO is that was it offering this country’s productive sectors a wider market for its products.”