SUPERMARKET OWNER Andrew Bynoe says Barbados is not yet “open for business”, citing whathe perceives as Government’s failure to revert quickly to the20 per cent duty on importedmeat products.
Bynoe said that after the decision by Minister of Industry and Commerce Donville Innisson May 17 to enforce a three-month moratorium that would see the contentious 184 per cent duty revert to 20 per cent, he wasstill unable to get his imported seasoned chicken wings at thelower tariff.
“It has taken over two weeksto deal with a simple matter that only should have taken a coupleof days,” the owner of Carlton and A1 and Emerald City supermarkets told the SUNDAY SUN.
In the letter dated last Friday, Bynoe queried: “Is the country Barbados open for business yetor is the closed sign forgottenin the window? . . . After red tape, after superlative red tape, I finally thought that I could unstuff the wings from the container on Wednesday, May 29, 2013. Todayis May 31. The cold storage container is still at our back door drawing electricity and suffering the costs of demurrage charges.”