BRIDGETOWN–Caribbean Com­mu­ni­ty (Cari­com) rum pro­duc­ing coun­tries are hold­ing high-lev­el talks with the Unit­ed States on re­solv­ing is­sues sur­round­ing the rum in­dus­try in the re­gion, Prime Min­is­ter Fre­un­del Stu­art an­nounced.A gov­ern­ment state­ment said that Prime Min­is­ter Stu­art made the an­nounce­ment as he ad­dressed a cer­e­mo­ny un­veil­ing a com­mem­o­ra­tive plaque for Mount Gay Dis­til­leries' New Ag­ing Bond ear­li­er this week.

Stu­art said the dis­cus­sions, which are al­so be­ing at­tend­ed by of­fi­cials from the Do­mini­can Re­pub­lic, were nec­es­sary since, with­in re­cent time, sub­si­dies had been giv­en to rum pro­duc­ers in the Unit­ed States Vir­gin Is­lands and Puer­to Ri­co, much to the dis­ad­van­tage of Caribbean rum pro­duc­ers.He said the sit­u­a­tion is so se­ri­ous that Bar­ba­dos is pre­pared to take its case to the World Trade Or­ga­ni­za­tion (WTO) if a so­lu­tion is not forth­com­ing.

"The Gov­ern­ment of Bar­ba­dos has had to take a stand on this is­sue, and un­der my in­struc­tions, the Min­istry of For­eign Af­fairs and For­eign Trade com­mu­ni­cat­ed with the US Gov­ern­ment on this is­sue.

And, of course, very re­cent dis­cus­sions have tak­en place be­tween Cari­com coun­tries, the Do­mini­can Re­pub­lic and the Unit­ed States Trade Rep­re­sen­ta­tive with a view to ad­dress­ing the more press­ing con­cerns of rum pro­duc­ers, not on­ly here in Bar­ba­dos, but in oth­er parts of the Caribbean, and, of course, in the Do­mini­can Re­pub­lic," he said.

Stu­art said Cari­com was not go­ing to "re­lapse its vig­i­lance" on the is­sue."We are not about to re­lax our per­sis­tence on this is­sue... We do not in­tend to al­low rum pro­duc­ers in the Caribbean to be so se­vere­ly dis­ad­van­taged by this mar­ket dis­tor­tion which has re­sult­ed from these over­whelm­ing, if I may use that word, sub­si­dies be­ing ex­tend­ed to pro­duc­ers in the US Vir­gin Is­lands and Puer­to Ri­co."

Last month, the Cari­com Coun­cil for Trade and Eco­nom­ic De­vel­op­ment (Cot­ed) said the re­gion con­tin­ues to have "se­ri­ous con­cerns" re­gard­ing the com­pet­i­tive­ness of Caribbean rum in the Unit­ed States."In ad­di­tion to be­ing the largest agri­cul­ture-based ex­port in­dus­try in Cari­com, the rum in­dus­try is a sub­stan­tial em­ploy­er and a ma­jor con­trib­u­tor to for­eign ex­change earn­ings and gov­ern­ment rev­enues," Cot­ed said.

Cari­com Sec­re­tary Gen­er­al Ir­win LaRocque said the rum is­sue, in­volv­ing Di­a­geo, the glob­al rum pro­duc­er, con­tin­ues to "threat­en Caribbean rum in­to the US mar­ket, and the lead­ers agreed that strong and ur­gent po­lit­i­cal in­ter­ven­tion was need­ed to ad­dress that is­sue.

"There is a con­cern with re­gards to some sub­sidy that is be­ing pro­vid­ed for Di­a­geo, the mul­ti­lat­er­al and one of the largest rum pro­duc­ers which is cur­rent­ly lo­cat­ed in St Croix in the US Vir­gin Is­lands," said LaRocque.

"Last Au­gust, the UK-based Di­a­geo re­port­ed­ly warned that should Cari­com mount a com­plaint to the WTO over the al­leged sub­si­dies it would "re-eval­u­ate" its Caribbean in­ter­ests.

CMC