The T&T Man­u­fac­tur­ers As­so­ci­a­tion (TTMA)has com­mend­ed the gov­ern­ment for the new leg­is­la­tion gov­ern­ing Spe­cial Eco­nom­ic Zones.

Last month, Plan­ning Min­is­ter Camille Robin­son-Reg­is an­nounced that the Spe­cial Eco­nom­ic Zones will con­tain spe­cial claus­es to en­sure the high­est lev­els of trans­paren­cy and the min­imi­sa­tion of cor­rup­tion.

“Spe­cial Eco­nom­ic Zones are ar­eas used by gov­ern­ments to di­ver­si­fy ex­ports, gen­er­ate for­eign ex­change, cre­ate jobs, plot new poli­cies and ap­proach­es and al­low more ef­fi­cient gov­ern­ment su­per­vi­sion of in­fra­struc­tur­al de­vel­op­ment, en­vi­ron­men­tal con­trols and labour stan­dards,” ac­cord­ing to the Spe­cial Eco­nom­ic Zones pol­i­cy for T&T by the Trade Min­istry.

TTMA pres­i­dent Tri­cia Coos­al says the in­clu­sion of spe­cial claus­es are a step in the right di­rec­tion, but there is con­cern over ac­tu­al en­force­ment of the new leg­is­la­tion.

“We are ex­treme­ly pleased that the Gov­ern­ment has in­clud­ed spe­cial claus­es to en­sure trans­paren­cy and ul­ti­mate­ly de­crease the amount of il­le­gal goods en­ter­ing the coun­try. How­ev­er, we are al­so mind­ful that en­force­ment of the law is not al­ways car­ried through, and we want to en­sure that per­sons are held ac­count­able for their ac­tions when they are in breach of the ex­ist­ing laws and reg­u­la­tions,” Coos­al stat­ed.

The TTMA stat­ed that some of the note­wor­thy spe­cial claus­es in­clude the cre­ation of a Spe­cial Eco­nom­ic Zone Au­thor­i­ty and stag­gered ap­point­ments by those on the SEZ Au­thor­i­ty Board and the de­c­la­ra­tion by each board mem­ber if he or she has an ac­tu­al or pe­cu­niary in­ter­est in an op­er­a­tor or en­ter­prise reg­u­lat­ed by the Au­thor­i­ty.

Coos­al stat­ed this is a wel­comed in­clu­sion es­pe­cial­ly as there were no spe­cial pro­vi­sions to mon­i­tor these con­di­tions in the pre­vi­ous dis­pen­sa­tion.

“In the past, Free Zones and Spe­cial Eco­nom­ic Zones have been a haven for il­lic­it trad­ed goods and if the rules are not prop­er­ly en­forced and mon­i­tored, there can be dire con­se­quences such as smug­gled goods en­ter­ing the coun­try. These prod­ucts can be sub-stan­dard and un­safe. Fur­ther, il­le­gal en­try of such goods may re­sult in the Gov­ern­ment be­ing de­prived of much need­ed rev­enue from tax­es,” Coos­al stat­ed.

Some of the most il­le­gal­ly trad­ed items in the world are to­bac­co, al­co­hol, lux­u­ry items such as clothes, hand­bags, sneak­ers and shoes, phar­ma­ceu­ti­cals, elec­tron­ics and ex­ot­ic an­i­mals, the TTMA stat­ed.

Ac­cord­ing to Coos­al these items need spe­cial lev­els of at­ten­tion and en­force­ment so that crim­i­nals recog­nise there are con­se­quences for their ac­tions.

“As you know, there is a con­sid­er­able move­ment of il­lic­it goods in the Caribbean and Latin Amer­i­ca and it is steadi­ly in­creas­ing. We need the rel­e­vant au­thor­i­ties in­clud­ing the Po­lice and Cus­toms and Ex­cise of­fi­cials to con­tin­ue to work as­sid­u­ous­ly to pre­vent the im­por­ta­tion of il­le­gal goods and il­lic­it trade from tak­ing place. This would fa­cil­i­tate le­git­i­mate busi­ness op­er­a­tors to reap the re­wards as­so­ci­at­ed with en­gag­ing in fair trade,” she stat­ed.

Coos­al said re­duc­ing il­le­gal ac­tiv­i­ty in these zones needs the co-op­er­a­tion of en­force­ment agen­cies and reg­u­la­to­ry bod­ies as well as en­gage­ment with re­gion­al and in­ter­na­tion­al or­gan­i­sa­tions.