Nothing epitomizes the double-talk of the present administration more than the position taken by one of its Members of Parliament, James Paul, last week over the issue of Subway.
For despite the Government’s repeated mantra of lowering the cost of living for all Barbadians, Mr Paul stoutly defended the 184 per cent import duties applied to agricultural products, even ones not produced in Barbados in the quantities or manner required by this international franchise.
Mr Paul, who is also chief executive officer of the Barbados Agricultural Society, was responding to a statement released a few days earlier by Frederick George, representing the investors in the local Subway franchise.
Mr George had said that Subway had cancelled its plans to expand in Barbados because the high tariffs on processed meats it has to import were killing it. Efforts to use local turkey had failed, he said, but Subway was buying local ham and vegetables.
The final blow had come when processed chicken, which was attracting a duty of 20 per cent when Subway started three years ago, was summarily increased, without any warning, to the 184 per cent charged on other meats used by the sandwich shop.
In an email to me last week, Mr George said: “I was informed today that the duty on processed chicken (not produced locally or regionally) has been raised from 20 per cent to 184 per cent. Now all our pre-cooked meats and poultry are subject to 184 per cent. This sudden increase in our most popular meal certainly has closed the door on [our] operating here. None of the pre-cooked meats and poultry are available locally with the exception of ham, which we currently purchase locally [along] with all vegetable products.”
Mr George told me on a recent edition of Down To Brass Tacks that Subway had been working with the local farming community to get other meats supplied in the way the franchise agreement requires, but it had not worked so far. They were either unable to supply it or it did not meet the standards required. These standards were not set by Mr George but by the franchiser.
Mr Paul, however, is not convinced.
“Has any fair opportunity been given to our local business sector to produce the product given? Even if it requires bringing in equipment, give us the opportunity to do so but do not attempt to shut the door in the face of the agricultural sector and by extension the manufacturing sector,” said Mr Paul, even as the policy he supports has effectively shut the door on Subway’s future in Barbados.
He added: “We have appealed to the Government to hold fast with us in terms of ensuring that we maintain the current level of tariffs.”
In the case of processed meats, that means keeping the prices of imports artificially high in order to protect local non-producers.
As for the matter of raising the chicken tariff to 184 per cent, Bobbi McKay, executive director of the Barbados Manufacturers’ Association, said that tariff had also been at the higher level for years but had been rolled back to 20 per cent in 2006.
“It took us two-and-a-half years to get the tariff back to 184 per cent,” she said. I hope she is proud of helping to raise, not lower, prices for consumers.
Even if a way can be found to get the machinery into Barbados to process these meats in the way required by Subway, the incentive to do so will remain that 184 per cent tariff. For if local producers can supply Subway processed chicken, it will be at prices that are roughly the same as what Subway is paying now.
And as long as there is a farmer or manufacturer out there who is not producing the product required but has influential representatives to cry foul on his behalf, we as a country will suffer from these crazy high tariffs.
Will we the consumers once again put our collective tails between our collective legs and slink back into the shadows, our mini-Prague Spring foreshortened by the lengthening shadows of the agricultural lobby?
Will we allow ourselves to fall victim again to the most powerful, self-pitying and non-productive influence on a country trying desperately to break free of the policy chains which continue to bind it?
• Pat Hoyos is a publisher and business writer.
