Refusal of DDL’s milk against ‘spirit of integration’ – Foreign Affairs Ministry 

Hours after the Chairman of Demerara Distillers Limited (DDL), Komal Samaroo flagged challenges relating to the export of the company’s products to Trinidad and Tobago, Guyana’s Foreign Affairs Ministry said such actions cannot be accepted.

The Foreign Ministry released a statement on Tuesday night noted that the local authorities are engaging their Trinidadian counterparts to quickly resolve the issue.

See below the full release from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation: 

The Ministry Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation and the Ministry of Agriculture have been made aware of an incident which occurred earlier today related to the non-acceptance of dairy products produced by one of the country’s largest producers of dairy products which was destined for the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago.

It is noted that under the Revised Treaty of Chaguaramas, the implementation of the CARICOM Single Market and Economy (CSME) to which both Trinidad and Tobago and Guyana subscribe, requires free movement of goods and services under the regional integration framework. The refusal of entry to the dairy products wholly produced in Guyana by CARICOM member state is an affront to the spirit of Caribbean integration agenda and must not be accepted. It is appreciated that regional products must satisfy the necessary sanitary and phytosanitary rules, the technical regulations as well as any product specific rules of origin required to qualify the products for regional preferential treatment. Available information indicates that the dairy products from Guyana destined into Trinidad and Tobago were in full compliance with these requirements.

While some details about the transaction and what led to the incident are still being discussed, the Guyana Livestock Development Agency (GLDA) remains in close contact with its counterparts in Trinidad and Tobago, the exporter and the importer to resolve this matter within the shortest possible time.

Guyana remains committed to ensuring that nationals who wish to exercise or take advantage of rights granted by the Revised Treaty of Chaguaramas and other regional protocol under the integration agenda, are not unduly restricted. Guyana has opened its market to regional producers, it is expected that market access for products from Guyana into any CARICOM country is guaranteed for full benefits of regional integration to be realised.