Gov't to put brakes on agri imports By Claude Wilson
, Freelance Writer WESTERN BUREAU: THE CEASELESS calls to Government to dam the flood of imports of agricultural produce and safeguard the livelihood of thousands of local farmers, have pushed Government to consider legislation that will temporarily limit the importation of certain agricultural produce. Farmers Weekly spoke with Agriculture Minister Roger Clarke last Sunday at the third annual Lethe Coconut Festival, concerning the Safeguard Bill. Speaking on the function of the proposed legislation, Mr. Clarke said it would "protect certain industries or enterprises that are threatened by extinction from unfair trading practices. For instance...where imported products of the same quality and probably, sometimes inferior quality, comes in and undercuts (the local market), the bill can be applied." The aim is to shield the farmings by discouraging dumping. Mr. Clarke noted, however, that the bill would not be a permanent measure. "It will not be something in perpetuity. We probably will be looking at two or three years at most. It's a temporary situation, while we get our act together, because it is important for us to look at the areas where we can improve on efficiency and move in that direction so that we can be competitive," he told Farmer's Weekly. Speaking to the legislation's practical application, the Minister said there was no intention of banning agricultural imports, even where there is an abundance of the local produce on the market. "It is not a matter of banning but limiting, it is a kind of managed importation," he said. The bill will not apply to crops whose local production is outstripped by demand. "If we cannot produce enough to satisfy the local market, for example, somebody talked about banning onions, it would be difficult for us to do that because the production is not there." Asked how the import restrictions would be applied, Mr. Clarke said: "Normally you are supposed to go through the Ministry of Agriculture to obtain import permits. For one thing, we have to be careful about diseases coming in. We have been doing that, for example, with say (chicken) leg quarters. We allow so much leg quarters in but not enough to be detrimental to the local broiler industry." And responding to whether Government would be instituting import quotas as a guideline to importers, the Minister said: "It will be some thing like that." According to the Minister, the Bill should be brought before the House shortly as Cabinet has already given approval for it to be tabled. Meantime, the Ministry has began to identify those areas where farmers have a competitive advantage and can deal with those niche markets.
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