GUYANA’S agriculture minister, Robert Persaud, has knocked the Jamaican government’s intention to import rice from the United States saying that the move could contravene the rules for CARICOM trade.

“I would like to state that the CARICOM rules for trade as outlined in the revised Treaty of Chaguaramas is very clear and we are expecting that the rice imported from Louisiana attracts the relevant Common External Tariff (CET),” said Persaud.

In light of Jamaica’s intent to import rice from outside CARICOM, Persaud charged that no requests for a waiver of the CET has been made by the Jamaican government, adding that Guyana was able to supply Jamaica’s present rice demand.

“At no time did we receive any request for rice that we could not supply and at no time were any requests made for a waiver of the CET,” Persaud said in a written statement yesterday.

He was responding to announcements made by Karl Samuda, minister of Industry, Commerce and Investment last week regarding the supply of rice to the island after the recent passage of Hurricane Dean.

Samuda announced that Jamaica would be importing 4,000 tonnes of rice from Louisiana to prevent any possible shortage in the island and protect the interests of the local consumer during the hurricane season. This was necessary, he said, since the normal shipment of rice from Guyana would not arrive in time due to shortages of output from farms in Guyana.

But, in his statement yesterday, Persaud said that such assumptions by minister Samuda were false.

“We have no shortage of output and therefore this assumption is not true,” he said, adding that exports of rice from Guyana have been on the increase in recent years.

“On examination of the Guyana export data as at the end of August 2007 it has shown that our exports to Jamaica was in excess of 10,000 tonnes more than the corresponding period for 2006,” he explained.

However, Samuda speaking on RJR’s news programme Beyond the Headlines yesterday, defended his position and insisted that there was a shortage of rice coming out of Guyana.

He also said that government’s decision to import rice from outside of CARICOM was communicated to Guyana.

The reality is that there is a shortage of rice in Guyana and Jamaican distributors are receiving less than the normal amounts, Samuda said.

He added that the information received, based on the distributors, is that they have not seen this level of shortage in many years. “We cannot sit back and rely on the inconsistent supply from Guyana,” he said.

However, Persaud contends that supplies of rice to Jamaica are adequate.

He said that the Jamaica Rice Mills now has a contract for the supply of 6,000 tonnes of rice from the Guyana company Golden Fleece Rice, and added that other Guyana exporters were now negotiating contracts with their Jamaican counterparts.

In the three months leading up to August, a total of 13,000 tonnes of rice was consigned to Jamaica with a further 4,223 tonnes consigned in August, according to figures provided by Persaud.

“It should be noted that in addition to Guyana’s rice being supplied to Jamaica, we need to consider the waiver of CET granted to Jamaica for the imports of 65,000 tonnes of paddy until 2010 by COTED,” said Persaud.

“When these two are added it is approximately 95,000 tonnes, which is 15,000 tonnes more than the national requirement of Jamaica,” he added.

Persaud is scheduled to be in the island for the Caribbean Week of Agriculture conference starting next Monday.