GOVERNMENT HAS OFFICIALLY informed the World Trade Organisation (WTO) that it is taking steps to end a number of subsidies which the WTO says is contravening its Subsidies and Countervailing Measures (SCM) Agreement.
And based on what Government has outlined, it will mean legislative changes and agreements with companies expected to be affected by the changes.
According to WTO documents made available last week, Government has been taking a number of “internal steps”, including finalisation of the preparation of a policy paper for discussion with the stakeholders, submission of the policy paper to the Cabinet for approval, issuance of instructions to the Chief Parliamentary Counsel to amend the legislation, submission of bills to Cabinet for approval, and submission to Parliament for debate and approval.
“The authorities indicated that processes would be completed in time for Barbados to honour its obligation to make these programmes WTO-compatible by December 2015,” the WTO said.
“In September 2013, Barbados informed WTO members that a position paper, detailing proposed recommendations on how to bring the offending programmes into line with the obligations of the SCM Agreement, had been circulated among the private and public sector stakeholders that would be affected by the removal of the prohibited programmes and that the ministry responsible for the coordination of the efforts towards the elimination of the prohibited subsidies had received their comments on the position paper.
“These comments and all proposed recommendations had been forwarded to the Office of the Solicitor General, with a view to determining any legal implications for the proposed recommendations. That ministry had also engaged with the Office of the Solicitor General to develop the most legally-appropriate way to formulate the proposed revisions.
“With respect to the Fiscal Incentives Act, as at late 2014 the Government has engaged in consultations with companies that have been granted benefits beyond December 31, 2015, to agree on some form of compensation,” the WTO added. (SC)