THE government yesterday announced a three-month waiver on the 15 per cent tariff paid by private importers of cement, as it moves to ease the shortage of the product.

The announcement came a day after the administration announced that it was about to sign an agreement with Cuba for the importation of cement to fill the current shortage.

In a statement last night, the Minister of Industry, Commerce, Science and Technology Phillip Paulwell said that the government would waive the tariff on imported cement to meet the shortfall triggered by a quality control problem at the sole local source, the Caribbean Cement Company, in Rockfort, Kingston.

However, Paulwell said that the waiver would be awarded on a case-by-case basis “for specific, time-bound, confirmed orders of cement”, and urged importers to seek supplies from near sources.

Said the minister: “The offer of the three-month tariff waiver to assist importers in on the table. I urge all suppliers to provide commitments within 30 days and to complete application for the tariff concession through the Trade Board, to ensure delivery within the three-month time frame.”

The duty on imported cement was as high as 40 per cent up to early March, when the government reduced it to 15 per cent in an effort to encourage private firms to import the product to fill the gap created by the CCC’s cut in production, in reaction to the quality control controversy. The shortage has severely affected construction projects, including employment, and hardware businesses.

Paulwell said last night that the volume of cement needed immediately to correct the shortfall was about 100,000 tonnes.

Some 72,000 tonnes of bulk and bagged cement is expected from Cuba, but the first shipment will not arrive before next month and the final shipment in August.

At Monday’s post-Cabinet press briefing at Jamaica House, Minister of Information and Development Colin Campbell admitted that a contract was necessary prior to the first shipment of Cuban cement. This followed three weeks of assurances from him that the cement was about to be shipped.

Campbell said that an agreement was reached between a team headed by chief technical director in his ministry, Dennis Morrison, and the Cuban government during a visit to Havana last weekend. However, he said that the agreement was still pending the approval of the solicitor-general.

“.We have now completed negotiations for the contract, and the draft contract is now with the solicitor-general, and we expect that we will get his concurrence in a day or two,” Campbell said Monday.

Campbell said that the government was “now in the process of finalising a shipment schedule, which will enable the delivery of 72,000 tonnes of cement,” which is an increase over the previously announced 62,000 tonnes. He said that it would be divided into 32,000 tonnes of bagged cement and 40,000 tonnes of bulk. Two shipments are expected in June, two in July and a fifth in August.

Campbell said the cement imported from Cuba had been delayed because a new contract for the importation of the product and new arrangements for shipping it to Jamaica had become necessary.