Government is bringing closure next month to the controversial issue of the rates of duty imposed on processed poultry products that have impacted the local branches of international restaurant chains Subway and Burger King.
Yesterday, Minister of Industry and Commerce Donville Inniss announced that the decision will be made in three weeks now that the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs has received a report of a committee set up in June under the chairmanship of Permanent Secretary Bentley Gibbs.
Noting that in the end, it could be a win-win situation for all, Inniss stressed that Barbados must open its doors to companies and businesses who wish to come here and engage in legitimate business.
“We cannot and must not operate in a myopic manner that whatever is foreign is not good or frustrate enterprises who wish to operate in Barbados. We have to open our markets.
“I cannot as minister here, responsible for international business, say on one hand, we need more companies to come here and engage in international business and then through the other side of my mouth block the Subways, Burger Kings, and others from coming around here,” he said.
